SIXTY-FIVE  TEAES  IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 


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SIXTY-FIVE  YEAKS  IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  A  TEACHEK 

1841-1906 

BY 


EDWAKD  HICKS  MAGILL 

Ex-President  of  Swarthmore  College 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  COMPANY 

(2tbe  0itoer?ide  ptt^^,  €amhtiti^t 

1907 


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UNIVERSITY 


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UP 


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GENERAL 


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COPYRIGHT  1907  BY  EDWARD  HICKS  MAGILL 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


Published  March  iqcfj 


TO 
SUCH  YOUNG  TEACHERS  AS  MAT  FIND 
THE  EXPERIENCES  HERE  NARRATED  AN 
ENCOURAGEMENT  IN  THEIR  WORK,  THIS 
BOOK   IS   AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


175627 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

I 

Edward  H.  Magill,  Ex-President  of  Swarth- 

MORE  College,  1906 Frontispiece 

Jonathan  Paxson  Magill 2 

Maby  Watson  Magill 4 

Benjamin  Hallowell 24 

WiLLiSTON  Seminary,  in  1849 28 

WiLLiSTON  Seminary,  in  1906 30 

Edward  H.  Magill  at  Yale,  in  1850     ....  32 

Prof.  James  Hadley 34 

Dr.  Francis  Wayland 40 

Prof.  John  Larkin  Lincoln,  LL.  D 62 

Francis  Gardner,  LL.  D \    .    .    .    .  76 

Swarthmore  College  (Parrish  Hall),  in  1869  .    .  142 

Joseph  Leidy,  M.  D.,  LL.  D 154 

Joseph  Thomas,  M.D.,  LL.D 160 

Edward  H.  Magill,  Professor  Emeritus,  in  1901  186 

Swarthmore  College  (Parrish  Hall)  in  ruins,  1881  216 
Swarthmore  College  (Parrish  Hall)  rebuilt,  1882- 

1906 218 


SIXTY-FIVE  TEARS  IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

1841-1906 


CHAPTER  I 

BIRTH   AND   EARLY   EDUCATION 
1825-1841 

SOME  description  of  the  preparation  for  my 
life  as  a  teacher,  in  the  various  stages  of 
that  profession,  may  not  be  altogether  unin- 
teresting or  unprofitable  to  those  of  my  read- 
ers who  are  engaged,  or  especially  interested, 
in  that  laborious,  but,  to  me,  always  attractive 
occupation.  My  parents,  Jonathan  Paxson 
and  Mary  Watson  Magill,  well-to-do  farmers 
in  the  township  of  Solebury,  Bucks  County, 
Pennsylvania,  felt  that  the  earliest  education 
of  their  children  should,  whenever  practicable, 
be  conducted  at  home,  in  the  bosom  of  the 
family.  I  was  born  on  the  24th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1825.  As  children,  beginning  at  the  age 
of  two  or  three  years,  my  brother,  four  sisters. 


2  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  myself  were  taught  and  trained  by  pri- 
vate teachers,  young  women  whom  my  parents 
employed.  They  gradually  admitted  some  of 
the  neighbors  who  desired  to  enjoy  the  same 
opportunity  for  home  instruction,  and  our 
little  family  school,  kept  in  the  second  story 
of  our  country  farmhouse,  grew  to  be  a  school 
of  eight  or  ten  pupils,  and  later  reached  about 
twenty.  This  instruction  lasted,  for  me,  until 
I  was  about  twelve  years  of  age,  when  I  was 
sent  —  for  two  years  —  to  a  public  school  of 
some  forty  pupils,  a  short  distance  from  home. 
But  while  I  was  thus  sent  forth  for  each  school 
day,  away  from  the  first  home  influences,  my 
parents,  and  especially  my  mother,  kept  over 
me  a  truly  guarded  care.  I  cannot  conceive  it 
possible  for  any  mother  to  feel  more  deeply 
and  constantly  exercised  for  the  best  welfare 
of  her  children.  At  first,  my  brother  Watson 
(our  mother's  family  name)  and  myself  were 
the  only  ones  thus  trusted  so  far  out  of  her 
sight  as  the  country  schoolhouse;  and  I  may 
say  that  our  mother  had  the  highest  hopes 
for  the  success  and  well-doing  of  us  both. 

I  differed  much  in  temperament  from  my 
dark-haired  brother,  two  years  my  junior,  and 
my  hair  was  so  white  that  I  was  sometimes 


JONATHAN  PAXSON  MAGILL 


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BIRTH  AND  EARLY  EDUCATION  :  1825-41     3 

dubbed  by  my  fellow-students  "tow-head." 
My  headj  too,  was  of  an  unusual  shape,  being 
high  above  the  ears  and  almost  square  on  the 
top,  with  a  somewhat  projecting  forehead.  In 
this  connection  I  remember  an  incident  which 
occurred  when  I  was  about  eight  and  my  bro- 
ther six  years  of  age.  We  were  playing  at  the 
end  of  our  long  lane,  some  distance  from  the 
house.  A  gentleman,  a  friend  of  the  family, 
who  passed  and  saw  us,  asked  my  mother  es- 
pecially about  me,  and  told  her  that  with  that 
head  of  mine  I  ought  to  do  much  good  in  the 
world.  She  told  this  in  my  presence  afterward, 
and  thus  early  the  feeling  was  aroused  in  me 
that  much  was  expected  of  me,  and  that  I 
must  not  disappoint  my  friends  and  especially 
my  mother.  I  early  learned  that  it  does  a 
child  good  to  be  well  thought  of,  for  to  have 
parents  and  friends  expect  of  him  important 
work  in  the  world  gives  him  strength  and 
courage  in  many  an  hour  of  weakness  or 
temptation. 

Another  evidence  of  my  precious  mother's 
care  comes  before  me,  at  this  moment,  as  I 
write.  It  was  customary  in  those  days  to  have 
cider  on  farmers'  tables  and  in  the  field  for 
the  laborers  at  their  work.    My  mother  soon 


4  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

foufid  that  I  was  in  danger  of  taking  it  to  ex- 
cess, and  on  perceiving  this,  she  at  once  ceased 
to  have  it  furnished,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that 
this  decided  act  of  hers,  and  the  reason  she 
then  gave  me  for  it,  saved  me  from  the  dan- 
ger of  excess  of  this  kind  in  later  Kfe. 

Like  other  farmers'  boys,  my  brother  and 
myself  went  to  school  only  in  the  winter.  In 
summer  we  worked  with  the  hired  men  on  the 
farm.  During  these  first  fourteen  years  of  my 
life  I  developed  a  special  fondness  for  the  study 
of  numbers.  My  parents  encouraged  this,  and 
my  father  offered  me  a  prize  of  eight  dollars 
if  I  would  "  cipher  "  through  Pike's  Arithme- 
tic (then  in  common  use)  before  I  was  eight 
years  old;  for  each  week  that  passed  after  I 
was  eight  before  that  Arithmetic  was  finished, 
I  should  forfeit  one  dollar.  I  well  recall  the 
three  anxious  weeks  after  my  eighth  birthday, 
when  I  do  believe  that  I  would  have  "ci- 
phered '^  all  night,  if  my  careful  mother  had 
permitted  it.  I  finished  the  book  just  in  time 
to  receive  five  dollars  instead  of  eight.  With 
that  sum  I  made  the  best  investment  that  I 
have  ever  made  in  my  life :  I  bought  of  my 
father  a  pretty  white  calf  with  red  ears,  and 
after  feeding  it  three  years,  sold  it  for  twenty- 


MARY   WATSON   MAGILL 


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.        BIRTH  AND  EARLY   EDUCATION:  1825-41    5 

four  dollars  —  a  percentage  of  profit  that  I 
have  never  reached  in  any  other  bargain.  But 
I  should  add  that  I  was  not  charged  with  the 
keep  of  the  calf,  for,  if  I  had  been,  I  fear  that 
my  profit  would  have  been  .small. 

About  this  time  I  joined  the  "Lyceum" 
held  for  many  years  at  the  schoolhouse  at 
Buckingham  Meeting.  All  questions  of  nat- 
ural history  greatly  interested  me.  A  family 
friend,  William  H.  Johnson,  a  superior  teacher 
and  my  father's  earnest  co-worker  in  the  anti- 
slavery  cause,  was  then  president  of  the  Ly- 
ceum. Noticing  my  tendency  toward  the  study 
of  nature,  he  appointed  me  to  collect  speci- 
mens of  all  the  native  woods  of  Solebury,  and  I 
well  recall  the  earnestness  with  which  I  went 
to  work.  I  carefully  split  each  small  piece  of 
wood  collected,  to  show  the  grain  as  well  as 
the  bark,  cleaned  the  bark,  and  polished  the 
split  side.  I  was  a  proud  boy  when,  in  a  few 
weeks,  I  presented  to  the  Lyceum  a  bag  of 
carefully  prepared  specimens.  This  experience 
and  my  later  study  of  botany  were  the  source 
of  great  pleasure  for  me  through  a  long  life. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  my  parents  felt  that 
I  ought  to  have  the  advantage  of  a  boarding- 
school,  and   for  that  purpose,  as   interested 


6  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

members  of  the  Eeligious  Society  of  Friends, 
they  selected  Westtown.  There  I  was  placed 
for  two  years.  My  studies  were  confined  to 
the  English  branches,  my  parents  not  consid- 
ering the  study  of  foreign  languages  of  any 
advantage  to  a  farmer's  son,  who  was  then 
expected  to  follow  his  father's  occupation  on 
the  farm.  My  leading  studies  were  arithmetic, 
algebra,  mensuration,  and  geometry.  As  I 
was  fond  of  these  studies  and  of  my  teachers, 
— especially  of  Howard  Yarnall  and  Hugh  D. 
Vail,  whom  I  distinctly  recall, — I  made  rapid 
progress.  Next  to  these,  in  my  estimation, 
came  James  Emlen,  our  teacher  of  penman- 
ship, father  of  Samuel  Emlen.  The  latter, 
although  then  quite  a  mischievous  little  boy, 
is  known  to-day  as  an  influential  minister  in 
the  Eeligious  Society  of  Friends.  Next  to 
these  three  teachers,  I  recall,  with  very  kind 
regard,  Master  Davis,  as  he  was  then  called, 
whose  discipline  was  strict  and  formal,  but 
who  had  the  good-will  of  the  students  gener- 
ally. The  discipline  and  the  care  of  the  study- 
room  (no  easy  task)  fell  to  his  share.  Out  of 
school  hours,  especially  on  holidays,  he  took 
us  on  long  walks  and  botanical  excursions  over 
much  of  Chester  County,  and  I  studied  with 


BIRTH  AND  EARLY  EDUCATION:   1825-41    7 

care  and  great  interest  DarKngton's  "Flora 
Cestrica,"  and  made  a  large  herbarium  of  care- 
fully pressed  plants.  This  turned  my  mind 
early  to  the  study  of  wayside  trees,  plants,  and 
flowers,  —  a  habit  which  has  been  a  source 
of  much  pleasure  to  me,  both  when  traveUng 
at  home  and  in  foreign  lands.  For  this,  in  a 
special  manner,  I  shall  always  feel  deeply  in- 
debted to  our  zealous  teacher  and  governor, 
Master  Davis. 

Another  of  the  outdoor  exercises  of  which 
he  had  the  oversight  was  the  nut-gathering 
in  the  autumn.  There  were  many  fine  hick- 
ory-nut trees  on  our  large  Westtown  grounds, 
which  then  covered,  I  think,  four  hundred 
acres.  No  one  was  permitted  to  touch  a  nut 
tree  until  an  appointed  day.  Then,  at  a  given 
signal  (a  tap  of  the  school-bell  upon  the  stile), 
all  the  boys  ran  for  the  tree  that  each  consid- 
ered the  most  desirable,  and  no  one  but  the 
one  who  reached  the  tree  first  was  permitted 
to  gather  the  nuts. 


CHAPTER  II 

TEACHING   m   COUNTRY   SCHOOLS 
1841-1844: 

AFTER  about  two  years  spent  at  West- 
town,  in  the  summer  of  1841  I  returned 
to  my  father's  farm.  It  was  in  the  early  au- 
tumn of  that  year,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  that 
I  first  stood  before  a  class  as  their  appointed 
teacher.  The  scene  was  the  unceiled  low  room 
of  the  wagon-house  loft  on  my  father's  farm. 
In  my  early  years  the  free-school  system  had 
been  adopted,  and  I  was  appointed  teacher  by 
the  board  of  managers  of  my  native  township, 
and  to  these  managers,  and  not  to  the  parents, 
I  must  look  for  my  monthly  payments.  In  the 
earlier  times,  before  the  introduction  of  the 
free-school  system,  each  parent  or  guardian 
received  a  bill  from  the  teacher ;  these  bills  he 
must  severally  collect,  the  charge  being  three 
cents  for  each  day's  attendance  of  each  pupil. 
Of  the  work  in  the  schoolroom,  I  may  say 
that  such  work  would  astonish  and  confound 


COUNTRY  SCHOOLS:  1841-44  9 

any  young  teacher  of  the  present  day.  Arith- 
metic was  "ciphered"  individually,  on  slates, 
without  any  class  instruction  or  use  of  black- 
boards or  charts,  and  the  chief  aim  was  to 
"get  the  answer,"  without  much  attempt  at 
reasoning  as  to  the  processes  employed  to 
obtain  it.  In  penmanship,  the  copies  were 
"set"  by  the  teacher's  hand,  at  the  top  of 
each  page  of  the  copy-book,  and  without  any 
aid  from  printed  or  engraved  slips  or  copies. 
Steel  pens,  too,  were  not  yet  in  common  use; 
quill  pens  were  almost  universally  employed. 
As  teacher  of  the  art  of  penmanship,  I  see 
myself  now,  walking  about  the  small,  low-ceiled 
room,  criticising  the  forms  of  the  letters, 
keeping  the  pens  mended,  penknife  in  hand, 
with  a  bunch  of  new-made  pens  sticking  be- 
hind my  ear. 

The  discipline  was  generally  maintained  in 
those  days  by  the  fear  of  corporal  punishment, 
though  some  of  us  teachers  refrained  from 
this,  except  in  a  few  extreme  cases.  In  some 
instances  dismissals  for  misconduct  were  made, 
but  as  the  schooling  was  paid  for  out  of  the 
school-tax,  there  was  often  a  contention  on  the 
part  of  parents  and  teachers  as  to  whether  the 
latter  could  dismiss,  or  even  suspend,  a  pupil 


10  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

from  a  free  school.  Although  these  things 
may  seem  trivial  and  unworthy  of  note,  in 
practice  in  that  early  time  they  sometimes  pre- 
sented to  teachers  insoluble  difficulties. 

With  reference  to  the  corporal  punishment 
of  children  in  school,  I  observe  with  regret  a 
tendency  in  some  of  our  schools  to  revive 
that  ancient  practice  of  a  semi-barbarous  age. 
It  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  winter  that 
I  spent  in  Paris  that  I  heard  a  professor  of 
English  in  a  class  at  the  Sorbonne  explain  a 
reference  in  the  English  book  they  were  read- 
ing, by  saying  to  his  French  boys  that  it  was 
the  practice  in  England  to  whip  children  at 
school;  a  practice  which  had  been  unknown 
in  France  since  the  French  Revolution.  To  one 
who,  Uke  myself,  knew  something  of  this  prac- 
tice in  my  own  country,  the  astonishment  of 
the  young  French  boys  seemed  strange  indeed. 
I  perceived  the  truth  of  the  words  of  the  great 
critic,  Sainte-Beuve :  "C'est  bon  de  voyager 
quelquefois;  cela  etend  les  id^es  et  rabat 
Tamour  propre." 

But  to  return  to  my  first  winter's  teaching, 
in  1841-42  :  I  followed  the  usual  practice  of 
that  time,  working  on  the  farm  in  the  sum- 
mer, teaching  only  in  the  late  fall  and  winter 


COUNTRY  SCHOOLS:  1841-44  11 

months,  and  closing  in  time  for  corn-planting 
and  other  farm  work  in  the  spring.  From  the 
opening  of  the  school  I  engaged  with  my 
pupils  in  games  of  ball,  snow-balling,  etc., 
during  the  recess,  just  as  one  of  them,  but 
was  careful  to  put  on  the  serious  and  resolute 
schoolmaster's  face  when  I  rang  the  bell  for 
them  to  reassemble.  This  acting  a  double  part, 
as  master  and  student,  was  made  all  the  more 
difficult  because  my  pupils  were  my  own  per- 
sonal friends,  relatives,  and  near  neighbors, 
and  a  number  of  them,  both  boys  and  girls, 
were  my  seniors  by  several  years.  A  few  years 
ago,  when  on  a  visit  to  the  old  Solebury  farm, 
—  still  retained  in  the  family,  —  I  went  up 
the  old,  steep,  rickety  steps  to  the  wagon- 
house  loft,  now  used  as  a  tool-shop,  and  looked 
out  from  the  south  windows  over  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  lane,  where  the  ball-ground  was. 
On  the  top  of  the  lower  frame  of  the  window 
I  saw  still  the  marks  of  my  penknife,  where  I 
had  constructed  a  species  of  home-made  dial. 
Having  no  watch  of  my  own  at  that  time,  I 
borrowed  one  from  a  student,  and  by  it  noted 
and  marked  the  shadow  falling  on  sunny  days 
upon  the  lower  frame,  indicating  by  a  notch 
the  hour  for   the   opening  and   closing   of 


12  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

school,  and  for  the  recesses  in  the  morning  and 
afternoon.  Of  course  these  marks  did  not  in- 
dicate quite  the  same  hour  at  different  seasons; 
but  they  answered  their  purpose  for  those  two 
winters,  and,  for  aught  I  know,  are  still  there 
on  that  lower  sash  to  tell  the  tale  of  more 
than  half  a  century  ago. 

Two  winters  were  thus  passed.  For  the  win- 
ter of  1843-44  I  accepted  an  offer  from  the 
school  board  to  take  charge  of  the  school  at 
the  Friends'  meeting-house  in  Solebury,  about 
four  miles  from  our  house.  That  being  too 
far  to  walk  each  day,  I  took  board  with  a 
pleasant  family  of  Friends  near  the  meeting- 
house, and  walked  the  four  miles  only  on 
Second-day  (Monday)  mornings  and  Seventh- 
day  (Saturday)  evenings,  for  I  took  my  First- 
day  (Sunday)  board  at  home.  This  year's  ex- 
perience—  the  third — was  much  like  that  of 
the  first  two  years  at  home. 

In  the  fourth  autumn  ('44-'45)  I  accepted  an 
offer  to  take  charge  of  a  larger  school,  with  a 
larger  salary ;  this  being  based,  as  before,  upon 
the  number  of  pupils.  This,  my  third  school, 
was  on  the  Friends'  meeting-house  grounds  at 
Abington,  Montgomery  County,  and  about 
twenty  miles  from  home.    I  shall  never  forget 


COUNTRY  SCHOOLS  :  1841-44  13 

the  solicitude  of  my  devoted  and  faithful 
mother,  who,  now  that  I  was  to  teach  a  whole 
year  away  from  home  and  her  influence,  gave 
me  one  or  two  hours  of  very  serious  advice, 
which  has  often  and  often  come  up  before  me 
in  hours  of  trial  and  temptation;  and  I  still 
feel,  as  I  did  then,  that  there  is  no  earthly 
influence  for  good  at  all  to  be  compared  with 
that  of  a  devoted  and  tender  mother.  I  hear 
her  voice  as  I  write,  though  considerably  more 
than  half  a  century  has  passed  since  then. 

I  have  said  that  this,  my  third  school,  was 
in  the  Friends'  schoolhouse  at  Abington,  on 
those  delightfully  shaded  grounds.  I  had  a 
large  and  pleasant  school,  and  felt  at  once  quite 
master  of  the  situation,  but  my  labors  here 
were  doomed  to  be  brief,  for  I  soon  learned, 
what  I  did  not  at  first  understand,  that  I  must 
take  the  children  to  the  midweek  meeting  of 
Friends.  To  this  I  strongly  objected,  for,  on 
account  of  the  hostility  of  Friends  generally  at 
that  time  to  those  of  pronounced  anti-slavery 
views,  my  parents  and  near  relatives  had  lost 
much  of  their  interest  in  the  meeting,  and  my 
own  feeling  on  this  subject  was  so  decided 
that,  without  a  formal  withdrawal,  I  had  prac- 
tically separated  myself  from  Friends.    So  I 


14  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

told  the  Abington  Friends  that  I  was  not  will- 
ing to  bring  the  children  to  meeting,  and  they 
asked  me  to  resign  my  place  in  the  school 
rather  than  allow  me  to  keep  the  children  at 
school  on  midweek  meeting-day.  In  this  crisis 
some  good  friends,  Jesse  and  Elizabeth  New- 
port, invited  me  to  their  pleasant  home  on  a 
farm  quite  near,  and  gathered  together  from 
the  immediate  neighborhood  a  small  school, 
including  their  own  children,  —  except  David, 
the  eldest  son,  who  was  absent  from  home. 
Thus  passed  my  fourth  winter  in  teaching 
school.  I  most  vividly  recall  those  quiet  morn- 
ings and  afternoons  with  my  little  class  of  boys 
and  girls,  and  the  evenings  spent  in  reading 
and  study  in  that  well-ordered  household.^ 

*  Several  members  of  this  interesting  class  have  since 
become  efficient  laborers  in  the  meetings  of  the  Religious 
Society  of  Friends.  Martha  married  Jonathan  Travilla  of 
West  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  and  was  as  active  as  her  mother 
Elizabeth  had  been,  and  both  possessed  a  remarkable  gift 
of  prophecy.  I  recall  most  vividly  some  few  of  Martha's 
religious  visits  at  Swarthmore,  and  her  sittings  there  with 
some  of  our  private  families.  Her  children  came  to  the  col- 
lege, and  among  them  Mary  has  become  widely  known 
among  Friends  by  her  gift  in  the  ministry.  John  and  Ellison 
died  early.  The  only  survivor  of  the  large  family  at  Abing- 
ton, who  is  still,  though  in  advanced  life,  a  good  thinker  and 
active  participant  in  our  yearly  meetings,  is  the  eldest  son, 
David,  to  whom  I  have  referred  as  absent  from  home  during 
my  winter  there. 


COUNTRY  SCHOOLS  :  1841-44  15 

The  experience  gained  thus  in  my  fourth 
winter's  teaching  was,  of  course,  quite  dijBEer- 
ent  from  that  of  the  larger  schools  the  first 
three  years.  But  all  went  together  to  make 
up  the  slow  preparation  which  I  was  uncon- 
sciously undergoing  for  the  principal  work  of 
my  life,  as  I  now  must  ever  regard  it.  In  all 
the  changes  I  began  early  to  see  and  acknow- 
ledge a  guiding  hand  that  insensibly  has  led 
me  on ;  a  consciousness  of  which  is  now  ever 
present  with  me. 


CHAPTER  m 

TEACHIKG  IN   BOARDmG   AND  CITY   SCHOOLS 

1844-1848 

AS  usual,  I  returned  to  the  farm  in  Sole- 
bury  in  the  spring,  and  as  I  had  often 
done  before,  went  to  market  in  Philadelphia 
with  my  father,  he  being  very  deaf,  and  I 
serving  him  instead  of  ears.  On  one  of  these 
trips  we  met  with  my  cousins,  Yardley  and 
Edwin  Buckman ;  and  as  they  were  then  en- 
gaged in  keeping  a  large  boarding-school  at 
Clermont  Academy,  near  Frankford,  they 
employed  me  to  aid  them  as  assistant  teacher 
in  their  school.  Here  I  had,  this  fifth  winter, 
a  very  pleasant  home,  with  congenial  work, 
and  relatives  who  were  wide  readers  and  good 
students.  This  year's  teaching  was,  of  course, 
with  its  care  of  students  at  night  as  well  as  by 
day,  quite  a  varied  experience  from  my  first 
three  winters  in  Solebury  and  my  fourth  year 
in  the  Newport  family.  The  oversight  of  a 
number  of  boarding  pupils  gave  me  a  famil- 


BOARDING  AND  CITY  SCHOOLS:  1844-48    17 

iarity  with  their  daily  habits,  and  a  better 
control  of  the  time  which  they  gave  to  the 
preparation  of  their  studies.  This  added  ex- 
perience was  continued  through  a  sixth  year, 
including  both  a  winter  and  a  summer,  when 
my  cousins,  the  Buckmans,  removed  their 
school  to  a  place  known  as  "  White  Hall," 
on  the  Delaware  Eiver,  a  few  miles  below 
Bristol.  It  was  in  this  school  that  I  first  saw 
taught  what  was  then  called  "  Naylor's  System 
of.  Singing  Geography."  A  teacher  named 
Henry  Warriner,  who  went  from  place  to  place 
teaching  this  system,  met  with  considerable 
success  in  securing  the  memorizing  of  long 
lists  of  names;  for  instance,  the  towns  on 
either  side  of  the  Mississippi  River,  from  its 
mouth  to  the  last  of  its  smallest  branches. 
Certain  faint  echoes  of  this  peculiar  chant 
come  back  to  me  as  if  it  were  but  yesterday. 
But,  like  many  other  fads,  it  had  its  day  ;  and 
I  think,  if  my  memory  serves  me  rightly,  it 
was  a  brief  day  indeed.  I  have  long  since  lost 
sight  of  our  traveling  teacher  and  his  system, 
but  I  recall  vividly  one  of  his  favorite  illus- 
trations of  the  benefit  of  his  "  rapid "  pro- 
cesses of  memory.  He  illustrated  his  theory 
by  saying  that  if  you  turn  a  large  wheel,  with 


18  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

a  loose  band  on  it,  very  slowly,  the  band  will 
slip  and  remain  cool,  but  if  you  turn  it  rap- 
idly, while  the  band  slips,  it  can  soon  be  made 
to  take  fire.  In  modern  teaching,  reasoning  is 
largely  substituted  for  memory  in  all  subjects, 
and  yet  rapidity  in  committing  to  memory  has 
its  value  in  these  brief  lives  of  ours,  and 
should  never  be  wholly  displaced  by  the  slower 
reasoning  process. 

One  incident  connected  with  this  year  at 
White  Hall  I  will  mention  here.  In  company 
with  the  students  I  was  indulging  in  a  re- 
freshing bath  in  the  Delaware,  near  the  pier 
where  the  passing  steamboats  stopped.  It  was 
about  sunset,  and  the  time  for  our  bath  nearly 
over.  My  ability  to  swim  was  but  slight,  and 
I  kept  carefuUy  on  the  familiar  sandbanks 
beneath  the  water.  Suddenly  I  slipped  off  of 
one  of  these  into  a  pool  many  feet  in  depth, 
and  at  once  sank.  I  was,  of  course,  greatly 
alarmed,  as  nearly  all  had  left  the  water.  Af- 
ter a  struggle  of  a  few  moments  I  felt  that  I 
should  rise  no  more  to  the  surface.  At  that 
moment  there  was  presented  to  my  sight  a 
most  vivid  picture  of  every  moment  of  my 
past  life;  I  saw  each  event,  and  even  each 
hidden  thought,  as  in  a  poUshed  mirror.   The 


BOARDING  AND  CITY  SCHOOLS  :  1844-48    19 

great  extent,  yet  the  minuteness  of  the  vision 
was  like  nothing  that  I  had  ever  known  be- 
fore, and,  as  I  think  of  it  now,  like  nothing 
that  I  have  known  in  the  almost  sixty  inter- 
vening years.  At  length,  just  as  the  last  boy 
was  leaving  the  wharf,  by  a  desperate  effort  — 
the  sudden  concentration  of  all  my  strength — 
I  pressed  my  feet  upon  the  sand  below  and 
made  an  upward  spring ;  and  with  great  dif- 
ficulty struggled  toward  the  shore  into  shallow 
water,  and  reached  terra  jirma  with  an  inex- 
pressible sense  of  relief.  I  relate  this  experience 
as  so  remarkable  for  its  vivid,  comprehensive, 
and  instantaneous  view  of  my  whole  life  up  to 
that  point. 

Toward  the  close  of  my  year  at  White  Hall, 
I  was  offered  the  place  of  first  assistant  in 
Friends'  Central  School,  Philadelphia,  at  that 
time  kept  in  Cherry  Street,  and  of  latter  years 
known  as  Friends'  Central,  or  more  familiarly 
the  Race  Street  School.  No  higher  posi- 
tion in  a  Friends'  school  than  the  mastership 
of  this  school  was  known  in  the  country.  As 
I  now  recall  the  circumstances  of  my  invi- 
tation, it  was  through  the  late  M.  Fisher 
Longstreth  —  of  whom  I  shall  speak  more 
fully  later  —  that  this  position  was  offered 


20  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

me.  The  discipline  of  the  school  had  fallen 
to  a  low  ebb  by  the  practical  failure  of  the 
principal  to  control  the  pupils  the  previous 
year.  As  my  position  was  only  that  of  first 
assistant,  I  had  some  misgivings  about  ac- 
cepting the  place,  the  more  so  as  I  had  heard 
that  the  new  principal  was  not  very  likely  to 
succeed.  But  I  felt  that  the  position  was  an 
important  advance  on  any  previously  held  by 
me,  and  resolved  to  make  the  trial ;  for  I 
was  always  ready  for  a  real  advance  when  it 
came  to  me,  as  in  this  case,  unsought,  and 
never  willing  to  take  what  could  in  any  sense 
be  called  a  backward  step.  This  has  been  a 
precept  with  me,  and  in  no  important  move- 
ment of  my  life  do  I  now  recall  action  incon- 
sistent with  it. 

My  feeling  of  discouragement,  on  hearing 
what  I  must  expect  in  the  man  under  whom 
I  was  to  serve  at  the  Cherry  Street  School 
was,  I  confess,  very  great  indeed.  But  the 
good  motto,  "  Do  thy  best,  and  leave  the  rest," 
helped  me  pass  this  crisis,  as  it  has  helped  me 
pass  many  since.  In  the  autumn  of  1847,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  I  entered  upon  my 
duties  in  the  large  Cherry  Street  School,  fully 
resolved  to  make  no  semblance  of  a  failure  if 


BOARDING  AND  CITY  SCHOOLS:   1844-48    21 

success  was  to  be  found  at  all  within  my  reach. 
I  was  therefore  established  in  my  boarding- 
house  in  Philadelphia,  had  obtained  what  sug- 
gestions I  could  by  inquiry  —  and  especially 
by  some  visits  to  Dr.  Longstreth — as  to  the 
position  and  duties  expected  of  me,  and  was 
at  the  schoolhouse  at  an  early  hour  on  what 
was  to  be  to  me  the  eventful  morning  of  my 
first  teaching  in  a  large  city  school.  To  be  al- 
ways prompt  at  the  appointed  time,  and  even 
a  little  in  advance,  was  then,  as  since,  a  fixed 
rule  of  my  life.  This  rule,  carefully  observed, 
and  the  good  effect  of  my  promptness  upon 
others  as  well  as  on  myself,  had  carried  me 
successfully  through  my  six  years  of  teaching 
in  country  schools.  My  one  failure  thus  far 
to  carry  out  a  contract  was  in  the  case  of  the 
Abington  school  previously  referred  to. 

On  entering  upon  my  work  at  the  Cherry 
Street  School,  I  constantly  considered  that  no 
past  punctuality  and  thoroughness  in  my  work 
could  avail  me  in  the  future ;  I  resolved  to 
continue  this  punctuality  and  thoroughness 
with  each  passing  day.  At  that  time  mathe- 
matics was  my  favorite  study,  and  if  my  mem- 
ory serves  me,  some  of  the  classes  in  arith- 
metic, algebra,  and  geometry  were  assigned  to 


22  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

me  by  our  principal.  Of  all  languages  except 
my  own  I  was  absolutely  ignorant,  for  reasons 
already  stated.  As  soon  as  I  ascertained  the 
progress  of  the  classes  under  my  care,  I  en- 
tered at  once  upon  the  practice  —  always  kept 
up  until  then,  and  never  abandoned  since  — 
of  a  careful,  critical  examination  of  each 
lesson  for  the  following  day,  so  that  my  mem- 
ory should  be  refreshed  and  that  I  might 
think  over  the  very  best  methods  to  impress 
these  lessons,  in  their  full  significance,  upon 
the  minds  of  my  students.  I  am  sure  that 
during  the  first  year  in  a  large  city  school  I 
studied  harder  and  burned  more  midnight  oil 
than  any  student  in  my  classes. 

I  very  soon  saw  the  reason  why  our  prin- 
cipal was  not  a  successful  head  of  a  school. 
His  method  of  discipline  was  wholly  by  force, 
never  by  persuasion.  I  am  not  sure  that  he 
ever  whipped  any  of  the  students,  but  he  had 
a  most  elaborate  system  of  "  demerits,"  and 
these  he  showered  down  upon  the  students  in 
a  most  boisterous  manner.  Whenever  he  saw, 
in  the  general  study-room,  of  which  he  had 
charge  as  principal,  a  student  violating  any 
of  his  elaborate  rules,  he  would  cry  out  from 
his  desk  the  name  of  the  boy  and  the  number 


BOARDING  AND  CITY  SCHOOLS:   1844-48    23 

of  demerits  that  lie  was  to  receive.  This  was 
heard  with  evident  obstinacy  by  the  student, 
who  often  uttered  some  response,  doubtless 
with  the  intent  to  renew  the  offense  if  occa- 
sion seemed  to  offer.  The  principal's  manner 
with  his  students  was  so  harsh,  severe,  and 
boisterous  that  I  could  but  wonder  that  he 
had  ever  been  appointed  teacher  in  a  Friends' 
school.  Being  only  an  assistant,  I  was,  of 
course,  very  careful  to  notice  none  of  these 
things,  but  I  was  so  much  affected  by  them 
that  they  are  recalled  as  if  it  were  but  yester- 
day. This  form  of  government  met  with  less 
disapproval  from  the  school  committee  than 
it  would  to-day ;  but  with  all  of  his  brusque 
and  severe  manner  with  his  students,  our  prin- 
cipal was  a  good  and  highly  respected  man. 
Some  of  his  students  are  doubtless  still  living, 
and  however  much  they  may  feel  that  he  was 
worthy  of  respect  as  a  good  and  honest  man, 
they  will  surely  admit  that  this,  my  pen-and- 
ink  sketch  of  him,  as  he  impressed  me,  his 
first  assistant,  is  not  overdrawn.  He  was  not 
long  continued  as  principal  of  the  school,  and 
I  think  that  soon  after  the  position  was  ac- 
cepted by  Aaron  B.  Ivins,  who  was  for  many 
years  at  the  head  of  the  school,  and  whose 


24  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

methods  o£  teaching  —  especially  arithmetic 
—  were  excellent,  and  were  sure  to  make  a 
lifelofig  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the 
students.  Many  of  these  would  doubtless  say 
to-day  that  he  was  the  best  teacher  they  ever 
had,  or  had  ever  known,  although  his  methods 
of  government  were  by  no  means  always  mild 
and  persuasive.  It  is  now  but  a  few  years  since, 
full  of  years  and  honors,  he  passed  on  to  the 
higher  life. 

While  at  the  Cherry  Street  School,  some 
time  before  the  close  of  the  first  year,  I  re- 
ceived a  kind  and  pressing  invitation  from 
Benjamin  Hallowell  to  come  to  Alexandria, 
Virginia,  and  be  one  of  the  assistants  in  his 
large  and  excellent  boarding-school  for  boys 
in  that  city.  As  he  was  well  known  as  a  supe- 
rior mathematician  and  a  very  able  teacher 
of  boys,  I  did  not  long  hesitate,  and  accepted 
an  invitation  which,  as  we  shall  see,  proved 
the  turning-point  of  my  life.  This  accept- 
ance I  have  never  had  cause  to  regret.  I 
entered  upon  my  work  with  him  in  the  fall  of 
1848,  in  my  twenty-third  year,  and  my  year 
with  him  was  a  memorable  one  indeed.  His 
other  two  assistants  during  that  year  were  his 
eldest  son,  Henry  C.  Hallowell,  and  one  who 


BENJAMIN  HALLOWELL 


BOARDING  AND  CITY  SCHOOLS:   1844-48    25 

afterwards  became  his  son-in-law  (marrying 
his  only  daughter,  Caroline),  Francis  Miller, 
son  of  Robert  Miller,  of  a  highly  esteemed 
family  at  that  time  living  in  Alexandria.  The 
influence  exerted  upon  me  by  these  two  most 
estimable  young  men  was  very  great.  They 
have  both,  some  years  since,  passed  on  to  the 
life  beyond.  These  men  soon  convinced  me 
that  I  had  entered  upon  my  work  as  a  teacher 
with  a  wholly  inadequate  preparation.  I  had 
felt  this  deeply,  at  different  times,  during  the 
seven  years  of  my  teaching ;  but  now  I  came 
to  reaKze  fully  that  a  mistake  had  been  made, 
and  that  if  my  vocation  was  really  that  of  a 
teacher,  I  must  for  a  time  abandon  the  profes- 
sion entered  upon,  and  not  return  to  it  unless 
I  should  succeed  in  preparing  myself  to  teach 
in  educational  institutions  of  any  grade. 

While  teaching,  my  two  associates  kept  up 
a  regular  course  of  study  of  their  own,  and 
especially  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages : 
they  were  hoping  to  enter  Yale  College  the 
following  year.  I  at  once  secured  the  needed 
books,  and  began  the  study  of  these  two  lan- 
guages without  a  teacher.  With  no  knowledge 
of  any  language  but  English,  and  being  then 
twenty-three  years  old,  the  task  seemed  to  me 


26  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

for  a  time  impracticable  and  even  desperate. 
But  my  two  young  associates  encouraged  me 
in  the  attempt,  and  were  always  most  kind  and 
ready  to  help  me  unravel  difficult  sentences. 
They  did  not  fail  to  point  out  to  me  the  beauty 
of  the  style,  and  the  inevitable  effect  upon  my 
command  of  my  own  language,  when  I  should 
become  familiar  with  the  language  of  Caesar, 
of  Pliny  and  Demosthenes,  of  Horace  and 
Hesiod,  of  Livy  and  Lucretius.  Their  kind- 
ness, as  well  as  that  of  Benjamin  Hallo  well 
himself,  kept  my  courage  up  during  a  hard 
year  of  teaching,  and  among  a  class  of  boys, 
many  of  them  pampered  sons  of  Southern 
slaveholders,  and  who,  I  doubt  not,  from 
early  habits  in  their  Southern  homes,  much 
preferred  governing  to  being  governed.  Us 
teachers  some  of  these  boys  were  inclined  to 
consider  as  menials,  as  we  were  working  for 
a  living ;  a  thing  which  they  had  never  done, 
and  without  doubt  never  would  have  done  but 
for  the  Civil  War.  The  great  conflict  was 
then  brooding  and  dark  clouds  and  lightning 
flashes  on  the  horizon  of  our  country  already 
began  to  give  fearful  evidence  of  the  approach- 
ing storm.  Even  Benjamin  Hallowell  himself, 
with  his  courteous  and  gentle  manners  and 


BOARDING  AND   CITY  SCHOOLS:   1844-48     27 

calm  dignity,  not  infrequently  found  these 
slaveholders'  sons,  whose  fathers  came  to  Con- 
gress and  left  their  boys  under  his  care  and 
tutelage,  quite  beyond  his  power  of  control. 
I  well  remember  one  of  these  boys,  in  a  fit  of 
anger,  seizing  the  door  of  a  hot  "  ten-plate 
stove"  in  the  middle  of  the  study-room  and 
hurling  it  violently  across  the  room  at  a  com- 
panion with  whom  he  had  some  cause  of  con- 
tention. One  may  readily  imagine  that  the 
government  of  these  boys  being  hard,  and 
the  teaching  of  them  not  always  easy,  I  found 
that  my  extra  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  was 
far  from  an  easy  task.  But  now,  as  I  wished  to 
enter  Yale,  where  my  two  associates  were  go- 
ing the  following  year,  I  felt  that  I  must  make 
up  by  hard  study  for  never  before  having 
taken  a  lesson  in  either  Latin  or  Greek.  With 
the  extra  labor  and  anxiety  which  this  year  of 
teaching,  governing,  and  study  had  caused  me, 
I  was  much  worn,  and  by  spring  I  felt  that 
my  mother's  kind  care  at  home  and  an  entire 
release  from  teaching  were  necessary  to  put 
me  in  a  condition  to  go  on  with  my  studies 
and  make  myself  master  of  the  profession 
which  I  had  chosen. 

Moreover,  the  cholera  came  as  an  epidemic 


28  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

that  spring,  and  I  witnessed  the  death  of  one 
man,  who  fell  in  the  street.  He  was  at  once 
taken  up  by  the  patrol  wagon  and  buried; 
others  were  reputed  to  have  met  with  a  similar 
fate,  and  to  prevent  spreading  of  the  scourge, 
they  were  at  once  buried.  These  reports  of  the 
ravages  of  this  frightful  epidemic  were  an 
added  cause  of  my  sudden  departure  for  my 
home.  Therefore,  with  Benjamin  Hallowell's 
full  permission,  I  did  not  remain  until  the 
close  of  the  term,  but  returned  to  the  farm  in 
the  early  spring. 

That  season  on  the  farm,  with  light  work, 
and  in  the  open  air,  was  what  I  needed,  and 
I  made  this  change  just  in  time.  But  I  fre- 
quently felt  the  effects  of  my  past  overwork 
and  anxiety,  and  that  summer  I  noticed  symp- 
toms I  had  never  observed  before.  Several 
times,  from  exertion  in  the  sun  in  the  hay  and 
harvest  field,  I  fell  unconscious,  and  was  car- 
ried to  the  house.  The  doctors  pronounced  it 
a  sunstroke  once  or  twice ;  but  I  soon  passed 
by  that  crisis,  and  only  once  since  have  I  had 
a  return  of  similar  symptoms.  They  were 
chiefly,  no  doubt,  the  result  of  my  overwork 
in  Alexandria,  and  the  worry  there  —  which 
is  worse,  if  possible,  than  overwork. 


00 


m 

O 
H 

CG 


C'J 


CHAPTER  IV 

STUDENT    IN  WILLISTON   SEMINARY  AND  YALE 

1848-1851 

IN  the  early  fall  I  went  to  Easthampton, 
Massachusetts,  and  entered  Williston  Sem- 
inary,  where  my  sister  Rebecca  and  her  friend 
Sarah  Warner  Beans  (who  later  became  my 
wife)  had  spent  the  previous  year.  On  enter- 
ing Easthampton,  under  good  instructors  in 
Latin  and  Greek,  I  found  my  progress  very 
different  from  what  it  had  been  at  Alexandria. 
I  felt  very  much  restricted  in  money  matters, 
as  I  wished  to  depend  as  much  as  possible 
upon  the  small  amount  that  I  had  saved  dur- 
ing the  seven  years  of  my  teaching,  drawing 
as  little  as  possible  upon  my  parents,  who 
could  not  well  afford  to  furnish  me  with  funds, 
though  always  glad  to  do  so  to  the  best  of 
their  ability.  I  practiced  great  economy,  and 
being  trained  by  my  mother  in  Graham's  sys- 
tem of  diet,  I  used  Graham  bread,  which  I 
weighed  to  prevent  overeating.    I  bought  mo- 


A«\ 


30  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

lasses,  and  kept  myself  on  bread  and  molasses 
only,  for  many  weeks  at  a  time.  My  expenses 
were  thus  reduced  to  about  fifty  or  sixty  cents 
a  week.  For  a  time,  after  I  took  regular  board, 
I  split  wood  in  the  cellar  for  my  landlady,  in 
part  payment. 

At  Easthampton  I  met  with  a  serious  ac- 
cident. With  other  boys  I  was  practicing  on 
the  trapeze,  and  we  four  went  flying  around, 
the  ropes  stretched  almost  to  a  horizontal  line. 
In  the  midst  of  this  I  lost  my  hold  on  the  rope, 
and  of  course  went  flying  through  the  air,  half 
way  across  the  large  playground.  I  fell  on 
my  outstretched  right  arm,  and  made  a  bad 
break  near  the  elbow,  the  broken  end  of  the 
bone  being  forced  through  the  flesh  and  skin. 
We  called  in  the  doctor  (there  were  no  sur- 
geons there  then),  who  placed  me  on  a  chair 
with  my  face  toward  the  back,  and  by  main 
force  pulled  my  arm  around  the  back  of  the 
chair  until  he  said  it  was  "  in  place,"  and  then 
bound  it  up.  Of  course  the  pain  was  excru- 
ciating. That  day  the  lesson  which  had  been 
assigned  us  covered  all  the  forms  of  the  Greek 
verb.  I  soothed  my  pain  by  walking  the  floor 
the  entire  night,  committing  those  Greek  forms, 
with  all  of  the  printed  accents,  which  must  be 


o 


< 

02 

o 

H 

03 


v^^ 


^^^''^ 


WILLISTON   SEMINARY  AND  YALE:   1848-51    31 

carefully  given.  When  morning  dawned  I  felt 
that  I  had  mastered  the  difficult  lesson.  When 
recitation  hour  came  I  repeated  the  forms 
without  an  error. 

I  presented  myself  at  Yale  for  examination 
at  the  end  of  my  year  at  Easthampton,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  Freshman  class  without 
a  condition 5  passing  a  successful  examination 
on  my  twenty-fifth  birthday,  September  24, 
1850.  My  friends,  Henry  C.  Hallowell  and 
Francis  Miller,  entered  as  Sophomores  that 
fall,  they  having  been  ready  for  the  examina- 
tions the  previous  year.  The  class  of  1853, 
which  they  entered,  has  some  names  on  the 
list  well  known  in  this  country.  Of  these  I 
may  mention  Andrew  D.  White,  since  presi- 
dent of  Cornell  University  and  ambassador 
to  Russia  and  Germany,  the  distinguished 
statesman  Wayne  MacVeagh,  and  Edmund 
C.  Stedman,  who  was  the  class  poet  and  is  one 
of  the  most  gifted  of  our  living  literary  men. 
In  the  class  of  1852  were  Homer  B.  Sprague, 
a  leading  educator,  and  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  the 
first  president  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
and  until  recently  at  the  head  of  the  new  Car- 
negie Institute  in  Washington. 

At  Easthampton,  though  not  robust,  I  en- 


32  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

joyed  fair  health,  and  considered  myself  well 
when  I  entered  Yale.  This  good  health,  I 
think/would  have  continued  and  been  fully 
confirmed,  but  for  the  fact  that,  by  the  advice 
of  my  physician,  I  had  acquired  the  habit  of 
smoking  before  leaving  Easthampton  for 
Yale.  There  I  had -a  Sophomore  for  a  room- 
mate who  was  an  inveterate  smoker.  I  well 
recall  one  evening  early  in  that  year  when  the 
annual  attempt  of  the  Sophomores  was  made 
to  haze  the  Freshmen  by  smoking  them  out. 
In  most  of  the  rooms  which  they  visited  they 
met  with  their  usual  success,  but  those  who 
came  to  our  room  found  us  their  match,  for 
we  both  sat  and  smoked  with  them  till  the 
small  hours  of  the  night,  when  at  last,  some 
of  our  visitors  becoming  sick,  they  retired  in 
a  body,  and  left  us  masters  of  the  situation. 
Of  course  the  experiment  was  never  repeated. 
But  some  time  before  the  year  was  over,  I 
was  convinced  that  smoking  was  injuring  my 
nerves,  and  I  abandoned  it  without  the  seri- 
ous difficulty  that  many  have  experienced. 
I  have  never  resumed  the  practice,  and  have 
done  all  that  I  could  to  discourage  it,  espe- 
cially among  the  young,  who  are  more  injured 
by  it,  I  am  sure,  than  those  past  middle  life, 


EDWARD   H.  MAGILL  AT  YALK,  IN  1850 


\ 


\^ 


^^J^RV^ 


OP 


th£ 


UNW^ 


RS\tV 


of 


CAL\fQ£ 


\>i^' 


WILLISTON  SEMINARY  AND  YALE  :  1848-51    33 

but  I  must  say  that  for  all  it  is  a  practice 
more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  ob- 
servance. So  at  least  my  own  experience  and 
careful  observation  have  taught  me. 

Having  finished  all  the  mathematical  studies 
then  required  at  Yale  before  entering  college, 
while  I  recited  mathematics  with  my  class  and 
passed  the  usual  examinations,  I  naturally  gave 
the  most  of  my  time  and  attention  to  Greek 
and  Latin, — those  three  studies,  in  that  day, 
being  the  sum  and  substance  of  undergradu- 
ate work.  Being  so  deficient  in  the  two  ancient 
languages,  I  worked  hardest  upon  them,  and 
did  only  the  required  work,  never  presenting 
myself  for  a  prize  either  in  Greek  or  Latin. 
Mathematics  were,  indeed,  more  like  play  to 
me  than  work.  They  were  a  real  relief  from 
my  classical  studies.  While  at  Alexandria, 
Benjamin  Hallowell  had  rarely  left  us  a  day 
without  some  original  mathematical  problem 
of  his  own  to  solve;  and  this  was  an  occupa- 
tion in  which  he  took  especial  delight.  The 
result  of  all  this  was  that  in  Yale  I  pre- 
sented myself  for  the  prize  in  mathematics, 
with  many,  or  perhaps  most,  of  our  class  of 
one  hundred  and  seven.  As  a  result  I  obtained 
the  first  prize  in  that  study  for  the  Freshman 


34  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

year.  In  consequence  of  the  irregular  and 
hurried  character  of  my  later  courses,  this  was 
the  only  prize  I  ever  received  in  college.  The 
prize  was  a  book  of  our  own  selection,  and  I 
chose  the  two  volumes  of  Chambers's  "  Ency- 
clopaedia of  English  Literature,"  in  which 
President  Theodore  Woolsey  wrote  with  his 
own  hand  the  fact  that  it  was  the  "  First  Prize 
in  Mathematics  of  the  Freshman  year  of  the 
class  of  1854."  But  a  classmate,  William  H. 
Eastman,  who  was  one  of  the  youngest  of  our 
class,  and  who  is  now  connected  with  the  State 
Library  of  New  York,  came  out  even  with  me, 
so  that  we  were  both  regarded  as  recipients  of 
the  prize  in  mathematics. 

Of  all  the  professors  under  whom  I  studied 
that  year  in  Yale,  I  always  regarded  James 
Hadley,  professor  of  Greek,  as  the  most  thor- 
ough and  accurate  drillmaster  that  I  had  ever 
known.  He  was  the  well-known  author  of 
Hadley's  Greek  Grammar;  and  the  present 
successful  President  Hadley  of  Yale  is  his 
only  child  —  worthy  son  of  a  most  worthy 
father.  How  well  I  remember  those  thor- 
ough drills  in  "  The  Formation  of  the  Greek 
"Verb,"  in  the  early  morning  classes.  In 
those  days  we  had  one  recitation  in  the  morn- 


PROF.  JAMES  HADLEY 


OF 


CAL 


,FQS^ 


WILLISTON  SEMINARY  AND  YALE :  1848-51    35 

ing  before  breakfast,  by  "  early  candlelight/' 
the  light  upon  our  books  falling  from  the 
tallow  dips  in  their  tin  candle  frames  hanging 
around  the  wall,  for  it  was  before  the  general 
introduction  of  gaslight,  and  much  before  the 
means  of  using  the  brilliant  hght  of  electricity 
was  invented.  In  1850-51,  the  electrical  ex- 
periments at  Yale,  as  elsewhere,  were  confined 
to  those  with  Leyden  jars.  These  were  coated 
inside  and  out  with  tin-foil,  the  electricity 
being  generated  by  a  glass  cylinder  turned  by 
hand  and  collected  in  the  jars.  The  only  other 
exhibitions  of  electricity  were  the  flashes  of 
lightning  in  a  summer  thunderstorm ;  but  the 
idea  of  harnessing  that  power  for  the  various 
purposes  to  which  it  is  now  applied  was  not 
among  the  most  visionary  dreams  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  student  of  nature.  Even  Frank- 
lin's early  experiments  with  his  kite  in  West 
Philadelphia  had  not  led  to  the  further  inves- 
tigations which  have  since  produced  such  mar- 
velous results. 

In  that,  my  Freshman  year  at  Yale,  I  had 
no  lessons  with  President  Woolsey,  and  rarely 
heard  him  speak  except  in  church  on  the  Sab- 
bath day,  and  a  few  times  when  he  called  the 
students  together  on  the  occasion  of   some 


36  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

general  violation  of  the  rules.  As  a  preacher 
his  sermons  were  usually  very  practical  and 
very  impressive ;  and,  as  a  Friend,  I  have 
always  felt  that  the  attendance  required  of 
the  students  was  a  real  advantage  to  me, 
making  me  realize  more  fully  what  indeed  I 
had  already  often  thought  —  that  I  could  bet- 
ter learn  religious  truth  by  hearing  preachers 
of  different  denominations  than  by  confining 
myself  to  the  meetings  of  our  small  Society. 
This  was  still  more  deeply  impressed  upon  me 
in  the  following  year,  when,  for  reasons  here- 
after to  be  explained,  I  was  a  member,  for 
the  time,  of  the  congregation  of  the  Baptists, 
under  President  Francis  Wayland :  thus  hear- 
ing regularly  a  Congregationalist  one  year 
and  a  Baptist  the  next.  I  was,  I  think,  a 
better  Friend  when  later  I  returned  among 
Friends,  than  I  ever  could  have  been  without 
this  varied  experience. 

One  of  the  special  occasions  when  I  heard 
an  address  of  President  Woolsey's  to  our  class, 
I  very  distinctly  remember.  We  were  called 
together  to  settle  some  case  of  disorder,  which 
boys  and  young  men  are  not  always  averse  to 
causing,  even  when  under  good  management. 
The  exact  circumstance  I  do  not  now  recall, 


WILLISTON  SEMINARY  AND  YALE  :  1848-51    37 

but  one  statement  of  our  honored  president 
made  an  indelible  impression  upon  my  mind. 
We  had  been  told  that  unless  the  disorder  was 
promptly  explained,  and  proper  apologies  were 
made  before  a  given  time  in  the  near  future, 
the  whole  class  would  be  sent  home  for  the 
remainder  of  the  college  year ;  and  he  added : 
"Gentlemen,  I  suppose  you  may  think  that 
your  presence  here  is  essential  to  the  existence 
of  the  college.  If  we  should  send  you  all  home 
and  lose  your  tuition  money,  the  college  would 
be  financially  the  gainer,  for  it  depends  upon 
its  endowments,  and  not  upon  your  tuition 
fees;  and  if  you  all  dropped  out  for  a  year 
the  college  would  suffer  no  loss,  for  it  costs 
much  more  to  keep  you  here  than  the  fees  for 
tuition  which  you  pay ;  so  that  it  may  be  said 
that  you  are  all  Kving  here  at  the  expense  of 
the  college,  and  in  that  sense  you  are,  each 
and  all  of  you,  beneficiary  students."  What- 
ever the  disorder  may  have  been,  which  I 
never  knew,  I  well  remember  that  soon  after 
this  address  of  the  president  it  was  satisfac- 
torily settled. 

A  practice  of  Professor  Hadley's  with  his 
Greek  class  is  worthy  of  mention  here.  We 
read  with  him  the  last  six  books  of  Homer's 


38  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Odyssey,  and  I  once  asked  him  why  we  began 
with  Book  XIX  instead  of  Book  I.  "  Well/' 
he  replied,  "  that  is  just  as  well  for  you,  as  I 
give  you  from  time  to  time  the  outline  of  the 
earlier  books  that  you  may  better  appreciate 
the  close ;  and  for  my  own  personal  pleasure 
I  like  to  read  the  books  in  order;  so  I  take 
six  books  of  the  twenty-four  each  year,  and 
your  class  happens  to  be  the  fourth  one  with 
which  the  pleasant  experiment  has  been  tried." 
This  revealed  the  thorough  and  live  student, 
which  he  never  ceased  to  be,  and  of  which  he 
was  always  for  us  so  fine  an  example.  To  live 
one  year  under  the  direct  influence  of  so  in- 
spiring a  teacher  has  been  to  me,  I  am  sure, 
as  to  many  another,  a  lifelong  source  of  good. 
He  was  the  second  of  the  truly  great  teachers 
I  am  fortunate  enough  to  have  had  in  my 
life's  experience,  the  first  being  Benjamin 
Hallowell.  Of  the  other  three  I  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  say  a  good  deal  —  and  of  the  causes 
of  their  greatness  —  as  I  proceed  with  this 
history. 

Toward  the  close  of  this,  my  Freshman  year 
at  Yale,  I  felt  that  to  go  through  the  full 
course  there,  and  graduate  with  my  class  in 
1854,  would  take  too  long  a  time,  and  I  be- 


WILLISTON  SEMINARY  AND  YALE:  1848-^1    39 

gan  to  devise  methods  for  shortening  it  with- 
out losing  my  coveted  degree.  The  course 
could  perhaps  be  made  up  by  later  study  after 
I  again  returned  to  teaching.  I  should  be 
twenty-six  soon  after  the  close  of  my  Freshman 
year,  and  nearly  twenty-nine  when  I  should 
receive  my  degree  from  Yale,  and  I  really  felt 
that  the  age  of  twenty-nine  would  be  rather 
late  to  resume  the  profession  for  which  I  was 
preparing. 


CHAPTER  V 

STUDENT   IN   BROWN   UNIVERSITY 
1851-1852 

JUST  at  the  period  of  my  annual  examina- 
tion at  Yale,  by  one  of  those  strange  cir- 
cumstances which  seem  accidental,  but  which 
I  have  long  felt  to  be  providential,  a  pamphlet 
fell  into  my  hands,  published  by  Dr.  Francis 
Wayland,  president  of  Brown  University,  im- 
mediately after  his  return  from  abroad,  where 
he  had  made  a  special  study  of  the  colleges  of 
Europe.  This  pamphlet  gave  a  clear  and  at- 
tractive exposition  of  what  the  author  called 
^^The  New  College  System."  This  system  pre- 
sented more  elective  studies — before  scarcely 
known  in  our  colleges  —  and  gave  the  de- 
gree of  A.  B.  for  a  three  instead  of  four  years' 
course.  It  also  abandoned  the  old  practice  of 
giving  the  second  degree  of  A.M.  simply  "  on 
time,"  or  "  in  course,"  but  gave  it  only  after 
a  further  study  of  three  courses  in  one  year, 
or  one  course  in  three  years.    This  was  indeed 


DR.  FRANCIS  WAYLAND 


V"  OF  THE 


\J 


^WERS\TV 


OF 

CALIFO^ 


t^:^ 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:  1851-52  41 

laying  the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  and 
proposing  radical  and  much-needed  changes, 
which  few,  if  any,  without  the  strong  person- 
ality of  Dr.  Wayland,  would  have  dared  to  pro- 
pose. This  variety  of  electives  made  the  college 
courses  practicable  for  a  greater  number  of 
young  men  than  they  ever  reached  before.  I 
say  young  me/i ;  for  as  yet,  even  the  progres- 
sive and  brave  Dr.  Wayland  had  not  reached 
that  point  of  progress  which  makes  equal  pro- 
vision in  college  for  young  women  and  young 
men.  But  the  world  moves  on,  and  the  very 
instrumentalities  which  Dr.  Wayland  organized 
without  an  idea  as  to  such  a  result  have  en- 
abled Brown  University  to  take  the  fine  stand 
which  it  maintains  to-day,  in  admitting  young 
women  to  a  college  course  of  study  more  lib- 
eral than  any  offered  to  college  students  of  the 
past  generation. 

As  soon  as  I  had  read  this  remarkable  pam- 
phlet of  Dr.  Wayland's,  I  lost  no  time,  after 
full  admission  to  the  Sophomore  class  at  Yale, 
in  visiting  Dr.  Wayland  in  his  home  in  Provi- 
dence. I  laid  before  him  my  condition  quite 
fully,  and  said  that  having  just  been  admitted 
without  conditions  to  the  Sophomore  class  at 
Yale,  I  desired  to  go  to  Brown  in  the  autumn. 


42  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

take  up  a  certain  number  of  electlves  — largely 
in  Greek  and  Latin  —  and  get  my  degree  of 
A.  B.  at  the  following  commencement  in  1852 
—  or  two  years  before  my  class  at  Yale.  He 
heard  me  through  patiently,  and  then  said,  in 
his  rather  stern,  forbidding  manner :  "  Young 
man,  what  you  propose  to  do  is  possible,  but 
not  probable."  "  Well,"  I  replied,  "  if  you 
regard  it  as  possible,  I  wish  to  undertake  it ; " 
and  he  said  that  I  might  make  the  trial.  Quite 
elated  with  my  success  thus  far,  I  was  about 
to  leave  his  study  (that  familiar  northeast 
room  of  the  then  president's  house,  at  the 
head  of  College  Street),  and  as  I  turned  to  go 
he  stopped  me  and  said :  "  There  is  one  thing 
more  to  be  said  before  you  are  admitted  to 
the  college;  all  are  required  to  attend  church 
regularly  here,  and  they  may  select  in  the  be- 
ginning which  one  it  shall  be."  I  hesitated  a 
moment,  knowing  that  our  branch  of  Friends 
was  not  represented  in  New  England,  and  I 
was  considering  whether  I  should  select  the 
Unitarian  church,  where  Frederic  H.  Hedge 
was  then  the  popular  minister,  or  attend  the 
meeting  of  the  "  Orthodox  "  Friends,  or  the 
Baptist  services  in  the  chapel  of  the  university. 
The  doctor's  keen  eyes,  shining  through  his 


BROWN   UNIVERSITY  :  1851-52  43 

heavy  bushy  eyebrows,  caught  my  hesitation 
and  he  said  at  once :  "  Young  man,  when 
a  man  has  lost  his  rehgion,  I  tell  him  that 
Providence  is  the  place  to  come  and  find  it, 
for  we  have  all  sorts  here."  I  at  once  rephed : 
"  Please  put  my  name  down  on  your  list,  as 
I  will  attend  the  chapel  and  hear  you."  And 
never  have  I  had  cause  to  regret  that  prompt 
decision.  So,  as  I  have  said  before,  my  year 
at  Yale,  under  the  ministry  of  President  Wool- 
sey  of  the  Congregational  church,  and  my 
year  at  Brown  at  the  Baptist  church,  under 
the  ministry  of  President  Wayland,  aided  much 
in  giving  me  a  wider  view  of  the  religious 
thought  of  the  world.  From  that  time  I  have 
become  more  and  more  attached  to  the  beau- 
tiful, simple,  and  practical  religion  of  the  Re- 
ligious Society  of  Friends,  in  which  I  was 
born. 

It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1851  that,  having 
been  admitted  to  Brown  University,  I  entered 
upon  my  studies  in  what  was  to  be,  if  my  plans 
matured,  the  last  year  of  my  college  prepara- 
tion for  my  life's  work.  As  I  had  done  during 
the  two  previous  years  of  study,  I  planned  my 
work  and  made  my  selection  of  courses  with 
great  care,  taking  under  Dr.   Wayland  his 


44  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

course  in  mental  and  moral  philosophy ;  with 
Professor  George  I.  Chace  the  course  in  chem- 
istry ;  with  Professor  Wheeler  the  course  in 
Greek ;  with  Professor  Robinson  P.  Dunn  the 
course  in  elocution  and  English ;  with  Profes- 
sor John  L.  Lincoln  the  course  in  Latin,  and 
with  Professor  Samuel  S.  Green  the  course 
in  pedagogics  —  this  last  subject  being  then 
v^  introduced  for  the  first  time  into  a  college  of 
this  country. 

It  was  to  this  course  that  I  was  largely 
indebted  for  the  position  of  teacher,  which  I 
secured  so  promptly  in  the  autumn  of  1852, 
immediately  after  my  graduation.  Professor 
Green  had  been  the  superintendent  of  the 
pubKc  schools  in  Providence,  and  I  was  placed 
by  him,  in  connection  with  his  successor  in 
that  office,  Daniel  Leach,  at  the  head  of  the 
Boys'  Classical  High  School. 

During  my  year  at  Brown  I  had  good  op- 
portunity to  see  that  I  must  place  President 
Wayland  among  the  very  few  really  superior 
teachers  whom  I  had  yet  known.  I  have  al- 
ready referred  to  Benjamin  Hallowell  as  first 
among  these ;  Dr.  Wayland  was  the  third  in 
point  of  time,  but  by  no  means  in  quality.  No 
one  of  them  was  eminently  successful  in  gov- 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:   1851-52  45 

erning  either  men  or  boys,  but  as  real  living 
teachers  I  had  never  then  seen  their  superior. 
Their  love  of  study  and  studious  habits,  and 
their  control  o£  the  minds  of  their  students  in 
study  hours,  were  all  that  could  be  desired. 
In  our  class  in  moral  philosophy,  I  remember 
a  course  pursued  by  Dr.  Wayland  which  gave 
us  good  training  and  a  thorough  mastery  of 
the  subject  in  hand.  We  usually  had  for  a 
lesson  from  ten  to  fifteen  pages  of  his  volume 
on  Moral  Philosophy,  and  the  doctor  did  but 
little  talking  himself  until  we  had  all  been 
heard.  He  called  upon  us  regularly  in  the 
order  in  which  we  sat,  and  the  first  one  (be- 
ginning at  different  parts  of  the  class  at  dif- 
ferent times)  he  would  ask  to  give  an  analysis 
of  the  lesson.  This  the  student  was  expected 
to  do  without  question  or  suggestion.  Then 
he  would  call  each  one  to  take  up  the  topics 
in  their  order.  When  we  had  all  thus  been 
heard,  the  doctor  would  spend  say  one  third 
of  the  hour  at  its  close,  in  a  general  talk  on 
the  subjects  of  the  lesson  and  their  practical 
bearing  upon  our  lives,  conduct,  and  character. 
These  closing  talks  of  his  were  always  most 
impressive.  They  have  left  upon  my  mind 
most  valuable   and  varied   impressions   that 


46  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

seem  to  make  an  essential  part  of  what  I  am 
to-day,  and  which  are  very  vivid  after  the 
lapse  of  half  a  century.  It  seems  to  me  that  no 
teacher  could  ever  expect  to  pass  down  to  suc- 
ceeding generations  important  convictions  of 
his  own  more  successfully  than  did  this  truly 
great  teacher. 

One  instance  in  connection  with  Dr.  Way- 
land's  methods  in  recitation  rises  before  me 
vividly.  One  of  our  class  had  fallen  into  the 
habit,  quite  early  in  the  year,  of  coming  a  lit- 
tle late  to  recitation.  One  morning  he  came 
in  as  usual,  but  it  was  just  after  the  student 
whose  place  was  next  above  his  had  recited  and 
taken  his  seat.  A  moment  after  the  deUnquent 
had  sat  down.  Dr.  Wayland  said,  as  usual : 
^'  The  next  will  discuss  the  next  topic."  The 
tardy  student  looked  a  little  dazed,  and  rose 
without  knowing  what  to  do.  The  doctor  simply 
said,  "  You  may  proceed  with  the  discussion  of 
the  next  topic."  The  delinquent  replied,  in 
some  confusion,  "  I  did  not  hear  the  last  topic 
discussed."  Whereupon  the  doctor  said  at 
once,  "  That  will  do;  the  next  will  please  pro- 
ceed," and  of  course  gave  the  delinquent  a  zero 
for  that  day.  It  may  well  be  supposed  that 
the  tardy  student  in  question  never  again  was 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:  1851-52  47 

delinquent  that  year,  or  at  least  not  in  the 
doctor's  classes.  That  was  a  lesson  taught  with- 
out words.  Once  when  the  doctor  was  giving 
us  his  admirable  and  clear  summing  up  of  the 
subject  of  the  entire  lesson,  —  which  he  rarely 
if  ever  omitted,  —  for  some  reason  his  remarks 
were  not  followed  by  the  usual  fixed  attention 
of  all.  I  shall  never  forget  the  kindness  of  the 
tone  in  which  he  rebuked  the  class,  saying  that 
he  had  always  enjoyed  giving  his  time  to  the 
teaching  of  appreciative  classes,  and  how  much 
wounded  he  always  was  by  seeming  indiffer- 
ence or  inattention.  He  did  not  fail  to  remind 
us  that  while  he  enjoyed  the  personal  inter- 
course with  earnest  and  attentive  students,  if 
he  could  not  secure  that,  he  much  preferred 
having  audiences  of  hundreds  and  thousands, 
as  he  could  readily  do  by  giving  up  personal 
teaching,  and  writing  books.  It  was  very  sel- 
dom indeed  that  our  class  was  open  to  such  a 
rebuke. 

I  have  spoken  of  Dr.  Wayland's  strict  dis- 
cipline as  not  being  always  productive  of  the 
desired  eflPect.  During  the  year  preceding  my 
admission  to  Brown,  the  year  1850-51,  the 
doctor  had  decided  that  more  constant  over- 
sight of  the  men  who  roomed  in  college  was 


48  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

essential,  and  that  the  professors  must  spend 
a  part  of  their  evenings  in  domiciliary  visits 
to  the  students  pursuing  their  studies  in  their 
college  rooms.  This  was  distasteful  to  most 
professors,  and  certain  of  them  declined  to  do 
their  appointed  part  in  these  visits ;  but  the 
doctor  persisting,  some  two  or  three  of  the 
professors  left  the  university  and  sought  work 
elsewhere.  These  changes  were  felt  at  the  time 
to  be  a  real  loss  to  the  university.  The  loss 
of  the  oversight  of  these  professors  did  not 
afEect  me,  as,  in  common  with  many  others,  I 
took  rooms  in  a  private  house  in  the  city,  and 
never  roomed  in  the  college  halls. 

Another  incident  was  currently  reported 
among  the  students  during  my  year  at  Brown. 
It  was  said  by  some  that  Dr.  Wayland's 
method  of  discipline  was  illustrated  by  a  case 
which  occurred  in  his  own  family.  The  report 
was  as  follows :  The  doctor's  severity  and 
firmness  passed  by  inheritance  to  a  son  who, 
at  that  time,  was  quite  young.  This  boy  asked 
his  mother  for  something  upon  the  table.  The 
mother,  being  quite  busy,  asked  the  doctor  to 
wait  on  the  boy.  This  he  offered  to  do,  but 
the  little  fellow  refused  food  from  the  hands 
of  his  father,  and  insisted  on  being  waited  upon 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:   1851-52  49 

by  his  mother.  To  this  the  doctor  objected, 
and  told  the  boy  that  he  must  take  the  food 
from  him.  The  little  fellow  continuing  the 
opposition,  the  doctor  said  that  he  should 
have  no  more  until  he  would  take  it  from  his 
hands.  It  was  said  that  the  boy  refused  all 
nourishment  on  such  conditions,  and  remained 
without  food  some  days,  until  a  physician  was 
consulted  to  see  how  long  it  would  be  safe  to 
continue  to  insist.  The  story  went  that  the 
boy  finally  yielded  and  saved  his  life.  The 
story  always  seemed  to  me  doubtful,  and  it  has 
sometimes  occurred  to  me  that  this,  and  also 
much  that  was  said  about  the  doctor's  unrea- 
sonableness with  his  professors,  was  greatly 
exaggerated,  if  not  altogether  untrue. 

I  am  the  more  inclined  to  this  conclusion 
by  all  of  his  kindness  toward  myself ;  and, 
although  I  called  upon  him  a  number  of  times, 
I  never  had  occasion  to  think  him  harsh,  severe, 
or  discourteous.  His  brave  action  in  whatever 
he  deemed  to  be  right  was  plainly  manifested 
in  his  pamphlet,  "  The  New  College  System," 
already  mentioned.  This  system,  inaugurated 
at  Brown  by  Dr.  Wayland,  has  become  almost 
universal  since  his  day ;  but  to  stand  up  against 
public  opinion  and  start  the  movement  required 


60  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

an  able  and  strong-willed  man  —  and  that  is 
what  the  doctor  certainly  was.  I  may  remark 
here  that  some  few  years  later,  the  doctor's 
health  making  it  necessary  for  him  to  resign 
the  presidency,  his  place  was  taken  by  the  Rev- 
erend Barnas  Sears,  a  fine  scholar,  especially 
in  Greek,  and  a  most  worthy  man,  but  not  in 
sympathy  with  Dr.  Wayland's  "  new  system," 
and  the  old  order  of  things  was  restored. 

Being  so  situated  after  graduation  that  I 
could  conveniently  take  up  a  three  years'  course 
(one  subject  a  day  for  the  time)  to  get  the  full 
A.  M.  degree,  I  did  so ;  and  I  know  of  no  one 
besides  myself  who  ever  took  full  advantage 
of  the  doctor's  change.  There  may  have  been 
others,  but  I  think  not.  In  a  few  years  Dr. 
Sears  resigned,  having  been  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  the  Peabody  Educational  Fund. 

With  reference  to  Dr.  Wayland's  nature, 
which  was  really  kind  and  courteous  at  heart, 
I  vividly  recall  my  last  visit  to  him,  some  time 
after  my  graduation.  I  thought  the  time  might 
come  when  I  should  desire  to  seek  another 
situation  as  teacher,  and  I  called  upon  the 
doctor  at  his  home,  where  I  found  him  at  work 
in  the  garden,  among  his  flowers,  and  asked 
him   for   a   letter   of   recommendation.     He 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:  1861-52  61 

stopped  his  work,  kindly  invited  me  into  his 
study,  and  after  a  short  conversation  wrote 
these  words,  as  nearly  as  I  can  now  remember 
them :  "  This  is  to  certify  that  the  bearer,  Ed- 
ward H.  Magill,  was  graduated  with  honor  at 
Brown  University,  with  the  degree  of  A.  B., 
in  1852,  and  that  he  is  well  qualified  to  teach 
any  subject  upon  which  he  himself  shall  claim 
to  be  qualified."  This  unique  form  I  have 
myself  adopted  for  some  especially  worthy 
applicants,  at  different  times;  and  I  may  add 
that  I  have  never  had  occasion  to  make  use  of 
the  doctor's  kind  recommendation  myself. 

I  have  spoken  of  Professor  George  I.  Chace 
as  my  instructor  in  chemistry.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  indefatigable  and  painstaking  teach- 
ers that  I  ever  knew.  He  was  never  known, 
I  believe,  to  fail  in  a  chemical  experiment  be- 
fore his  class,  for  he  invariably  tried  every  one 
of  them  before  the  class  came  in.  Thus  he 
never  had  occasion  to  repeat  the  words  so  of- 
ten heard  from  some  lecturers:  "Gentlemen, 
the  experiment  fails,  but  the  principle  is  true 
notwithstanding."  Professor  Chace  always 
opened  his  lectures  by  a  thorough  quiz  upon 
the  previous  lecture.  He  expected  us  to  be 
ready,  and  he  was  so  uniform  in  this  that  we 


62  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

were  very  sure  to  be  prepared  for  it.  I  recall 
one  case  of  a  student  whose  answers  were 
usually  the  result  of  shrewd  guesses  rather 
than  of  careful  study.  The  professor  was  ask- 
ing him  how  indigo  acted  in  a  certain  mixture, 
and  the  guessing  student  said  in  reply :  "  The 
indigo  floated  or  sank,  I  am  not  sure  which ; 
but  I  am  sure  it  was  one  way  or  the  other." 
"Young  man,"  said  Professor  Chace,  rather 
sternly,  though  he  was  usually  gentle,  "  every- 
thing in  life  is  one  way  or  the  other,  and  what 
you  come  to  college  for  is  to  find  out  which 
way  it  isJ'  I  never  observed  that  this  sharp 
reprimand  made  a  material  change  in  this 
young  man's  habit ;  and  even  in  his  law  cases 
(for  he  became  a  lawyer)  I  suppose  that  he 
went  on  guessing  to  the  end  of  his  short  life. 
If  chemistry  had  been  a  favorite  study  of  mine, 
I  should,  no  doubt,  put  down  George  I.  Chace 
among  my  few  truly  great  teachers. 

Owing  to  the  great  importance  of  Latin  in 
every  college  course  in  those  days,  and  to  the 
deficiency  of  my  early  preparation  in  it,  I 
found  it  necessary  to  devote  a  large  portion  of 
my  time  to  Latin.  My  teacher  was  Professor 
John  L.  Lincoln,  and  him  I  must  name  as  the 
fourth  in  point  of  time,  of  my  truly  great 


PROF.   JOHN   LARKIN   LINCOLN,  LL.  D. 


V 


iB»^  R  V 


OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 


OF 


^/\LIF0H^ 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:  1861-62  53 

teachers.  He  carefully  explained  to  us  how 
to  unravel  difficult  constructions;  but  while 
teaching  words,  he  was  no  teacher  of  words 
alone  without  the  thought.  With  him,  the 
thought  of  an  author  was  the  main  thing, 
while  the  form  of  expression  was  not  without 
its  importance.  All  who  are  familiar  with  his 
excellent  edition  of  the  works  of  Horace, 
that  model  of  a  class  volume,  will  appreciate 
what  I  say.  With  him,  a  lesson  to  be  good 
must  be  as  good  as  the  student  could  possibly 
prepare ;  and  he  had  a  remarkable  faculty  for 
gauging  the  mind  of  a  student.  With  him  a 
lesson  that  would  pass  for  a  good  one  from 
one  student  would  be  but  an  indifferent  one 
from  another.  When  he  translated  for  us — 
as  he  occasionally  did — some  of  the  odes  or 
epistles  of  Horace,  the  words  and  phrases 
which  fell  from  his  lips  were  those  of  a  mas- 
ter of  English  speech.  On  one  occasion, 
when  we  were  to  have  one  of  his  searching 
and  thorough  examinations  on  all  of  the  Odes 
of  Horace,  I  resolved  that  I  would  not  allow 
one  ode,  or  one  verse  or  line  of  an  ode,  to 
escape  a  careful  rendering  into  the  best  Eng- 
lish that  I  could  then  command.  To  secure 
this  end,  I  spent  on  that  single  occasion  the 


54  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

entire  previous  twenty-four  consecutive  hours 
in  going  over  every  ode,  and  in  recaUing  every 
rendering  that  he  had  given  us,  and  every 
collateral  note  upon  it.  For  the  examination 
on  the  following  day,  I  well  recall  his  giving 
me  100,  or  the  full  maximum  mark.  He 
spoke  to  me  of  it  afterward,  and  asked  how 
I  had  so  well  recalled  every  point  of  a  study 
of  some  months;  and  when  I  told  him,  he 
said  such  an  effort  as  that  was  surely  worth  a 
record  of  100;  and  added  that  he  did  not 
remember  having  given  the  mark  before.  He 
was  never  noted  for  the  high-marking  of  his 
students.  I  made  up  my  loss  of  sleep  by  a 
sleep  nearly  as  long  as  my  wakeful  period  of 
twenty-four  hours,  and  was  then  quite  myself 
again,  and  ready  for  work. 

On  one  other  occasion  I  remember  such  a 
Kip  van  Winkle  sleep.  It  was  during  my  work 
in  the  Providence  High  School,  and  after  a 
long  written  examination  of  a  large  class  and 
the  mass  of  papers  involved.  I  returned  home 
on  Seventh-day  (Saturday)  evening,  and  slept, 
with  scarcely  a  conscious  waking,  until  Second- 
day  (Monday)  morning.  It  seems  almost  in- 
credible, but  it  was  actually  so  once,  and  but 
once  in  my  life.   I  recalled  afterwards  a  par- 


BROWN  UNIVERSITY:  1851-52  65 

tial  waking,  about  twilight  on  First'day  (Sun- 
day) evening,  but  was  soon  again  lost  in  sleep. 
Throughout  my  active  life  I  have  been  able, 
when  very  weary,  to  sleep  under  almost  any 
circumstances  or  amid  any  surroundings ;  and 
doubtless  it  has  been  one  of  the  means  of 
preserving  my  almost  phenomenal  health 
through  a  life  which  has  at  times  required 
unusual  exertion. 

I  must  say  a  few  more  words  about  my  ex- 
cellent friend  and  able  teacher,  John  L.  Lin- 
coln. During  the  course  of  my  teaching  in 
the  Providence  High  School,  my  former  Latin 
professor  came  in  to  see  me  train  one  of  my 
classes  in  Latin  grammar.  I  was  in  the  habit 
of  requiring  the  committal  of  long  rules  to 
memory,  with  long  lists  of  exceptions  —  a 
practice  then  in  vogue  in  teaching  Latin,  and 
which  I  saw  in  full  operation  later,  in  the  Bos- 
ton Latin  School.  The  professor  remarked  to 
me,  dryly,  after  the  class,  that  it  was  "well  to 
catch  boys  young  to  teach  them  to  repeat 
such  lists,  and  before  they  were  old  enough 
to  know  better." 

Some  time  after  my  graduation  at  Brown, 
Professor  Lincoln  sent  me  word  that  I  had 
stood  high  enough  in  my  class  at  graduation 


66  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

to  be  eligible  to  election  in  Phi  Beta  Kappa, 
but  that  I  had  not  then  been  elected  because 
I  was  an  irregular  student,  being  one  of  Dr. 
Wayland's  "  new  course  "  men  ;  that  he  had 
proposed  me  to  the  society  for  membership 
notwithstanding,  on  the  ground  of  my  success 
in  college;  and  that  I  had  been  elected.  I 
was,  certainly,  very  grateful  to  him  for  thus 
remembering  me  when  I  had  not  a  wholly 
legitimate  ground  for  such  election  to  mem- 
bership in  that  time-honored  literary  society. 
It  was  soon  after  taking  my  degree  in 
Brown  that  I  was  elected  by  the  school  board 
of  Providence  as  classical  teacher  in  the  High 
School.  This  was  done  without  any  solicita- 
tion on  my  part,  but  at  the  suggestion,  as 
I  have  said,  of  Professor  Samuel  S.  Greene. 
I  returned  to  my  home  in  Solebury,  Bucks 
County,  for  that  summer  vacation,  feeling  that 
the  three  years  of  my  special  preparation  for 
my  life's  work  at  Williston,  Yale,  and  Brown 
were  now  completed,  and  that  the  earnest 
work  itself  was  about  to  begin.  After  an 
engagement  of  five  years,  I  now  prepared  for 
my  marriage  with  Sarah  Warner  Beans  in  the 
autumn. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PRINCIPAL  OP  PROVIDENCE  CLASSICAL  HIGH 

SCHOOL 

1852-1859 

WHEN  the  summer  vacation  was  over 
I  returned  to  New  England,  and  en- 
tered upon  my  duties  in  the  Providence  High 
School.  There  were  at  first  three  classes  of 
boys,  Rooms  I,  H,  and  HI.  As  the  last  teacher 
appointed,  I  began  in  Room  HI.  We  soon 
divided  the  school  into  two  departments,  called 
the  English  and  Classical  departments.  Before 
that  first  year  was  over,  the  teacher  at  the  head 
of  the  classical  department  left,  and  I  suc- 
ceeded him. 

I  had  a  hard  year's  work  before  me,  for 
besides  my  school  work  I  had  arranged  with 
a  professor  in  the  university  to  take  with  him 
one  lesson  a  day,  and  thus  go  on  with  the  work 
necessary  to  secure  the  degree  of  A.  M.,  the 
A.  B.  having  been  conferred  at  the  past  com- 
mencement. By  Dr.  Wayland's  system,  as  I 
have  said,  to  get  the  second  degree  I  must 


68  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

take  one  course  for  three  years  or  three  courses 
for  one  year.  Naturally,  I  chose  the  first  of 
these,  for  one  course  was  quite  all  I  could 
carry  while  engaged  in  teaching. 

The  head  of  the  Providence  High  School, 
before  my  connection  with  it,  was  one  who, 
later,  has  been  well  known  as  an  author  and 
educator,  and  who  now,  after  a  long  service, 
is  professor  emeritus  of  Brown  University, 
Albert  Harkness.  At  that  time  he  had  gone 
to  Europe  for  further  study  and  fuller  prepa- 
ration for  his  work.  After  the  division  of  the 
High  School  into  the  two  departments, English 
and  Classical,  I  was  at  last  happy  in,  and  satis- 
fied with,  my  work,  finding  it  each  year  more 
congenial  and  attractive.  Of  course  Latin  was 
the  leading  study,  and  for  this  I  had  now  be- 
come reasonably  well  prepared. 

During  the  first  three  years  of  my  teaching, 
the  young  men  and  boys  occupied  one  end 
of  the  building,  the  young  women  and  girls 
the  other.  The  two  schools  were  quite  as  dis- 
tinct and  separate  as  though  they  had  been  in 
different  parts  of  the  city.  At  that  time  Miss 
Shaw  was  the  able  and  successful  head  of  the 
young  women's  rooms.  Of  their  division  into 
Classical  and  English  rooms,  like  the  boys', 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       59 

I  had  no  knowledge ;  but  there  was  a  general 
closing-day  —  a  species  of  commencement 
which  ended  the  school  year,  with  public 
speaking  as  the  principal  exercise.  For  this 
the  men  teachers  prepared  the  boys,  and  the 
women  teachers  the  girls.  There  was  a  pecul- 
iar arrangement  adopted  for  these  exercises. 
The  young  men  prepared  written  addresses, 
which  they  committed  to  memory  and  deliv- 
ered from  the  platform.  The  young  women's 
productions  were  always  called  "  essays,"  and 
never  "  orations,"  like  those  of  the  young 
men.  Although  the  young  men  stood  on  the 
platform  to  speak,  this  was  not  considered 
proper  for  the  young  women ;  they  read  their 
essays  standing  on  the  lowest  of  the  three 
steps  leading  to  the  platform,  thus  signifying 
the  humbler  position  to  be  taken  by  woman. 

Indeed,  the  movement  giving  to  women  the 
opportunity  of  a  high-school  education  was 
then  in  its  infancy,  even  in  progressive  New 
England.  It  was  but  a  few  years  earlier  that 
the  girls  of  Boston  were  first  admitted  to  the 
High  School,  and  not,  at  first,  to  high  schools 
of  their  own  ;  but  it  was  voted  by  the  school 
board  that  the  girls  could  be  admitted  to 
"  occupy  the  seats  made  vacant  by  the  boys  " 


60  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

in  summer  only,  when  many  of  the  boys  were 
kept  at  home  to  work.  It  hardly  seems  pos- 
sible now  that  such  educational  conditions 
could  have  existed  in  our  country  within  the 
memory  of  those  still  living.  But  the  world 
is  moving  on,  and  we  sometimes  feel  that  our 
own  country  is  in  the  advance  guard  of  this 
movement;  in  some  respects  this  is  undoubt- 
edly true. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  opening  of  my  school 
in  1852, 1  had  a  few  days  of  vacation  given 
me  by  our  board,  to  return  to  my  native  place 
to  be  married.  I  did  not,  on  that  occasion,  do 
as  I  often  did  later,  when  absent  from  the 
school,  leave  the  students  under  the  care  of 
one  of  their  number  as  monitor,  or  even  some- 
times under  their  own  care,  depending  upon 
their  honor  and  allowing  them  to  go  on  with 
their  studies  alone.  I  had  not  thus  early  se- 
cured the  full  control  of  my  students.  In  later 
years,  I  could  depend  upon  their  hours  being 
well  spent  under  absolute  self-control.  I  oc- 
casionally visited  other  schools,  and  even  some 
in  neighboring  towns,  while  my  students 
were  under  entire  self-government.  On  more 
than  one  such  occasion  committee-men  had 
visited  my  school,  and  had   said  pleasantly 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       61 

afterwards  that  they  were  not  sure  but  that  I 
had  better  remain  away  permanently,  as  they 
noticed  better  order,  if  possible,  in  my  absence 
than  in  my  presence.  These  conditions  I  be- 
gan to  labor  to  establish  during  this  the  first 
year  after  my  graduation,  and  they  were  based 
upon  the  cultivation  of  friendly  feeling  and  of 
perfect  confidence  between  my  students  and 
myself.  To  do  this  I  left  them  not  infrequently 
for  short  periods,  on  their  honor ;  and  when 
such  a  relation  is  once  established  between  a 
teacher  and  his  students,  the  confidence  placed 
in  them  by  a  teacher  is  rarely  misplaced.  I 
never  attempted  to  establish  the  rule  of  no 
whispering  among  them,  such  a  rule  always 
having  the  effect,  and  very  soon,  of  destroying 
the  relation  of  confidence  which  is  so  desir- 
able. I  remember  some  who  were  occasional 
visitors  and  who  did  not  know  my  methods, 
looking  a  little  worried,  and  having  their  at- 
tention distracted  from  the  recitation  by  their 
close  watch  of  students  in  the  back  part  of 
the  room.  Occasionally,  after  the  visit  of  such 
a  watcher,  he  would  say  as  he  left,  after  an 
hour's  visit,  as  though  he  thought  he  was  giv- 
ing me  valuable  information,  "  I  think  that  I 
have  seen  a  few  words  exchanged  in  the  back 


62  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

part  of  the  room  during  this  visit."  I  told 
him,  indifferently,  that  if  he  had  seen  every 
student  in  the  back  part  of  the  room  exchange 
words  with  another  while  studying,  I  should 
not  have  been  at  all  surprised,  as  my  only  rule 
was  that  they  should  occupy  themselves  with 
earnest  study  during  study  hours,  and  not 
speak  unless  they  found  it  necessary,  and  then 
not  too  frequently  and  in  a  low  voice.  The 
machine  teachers  who  visited  me  at  this  time 
found  my  classes  live  boys  and  young  men, 
and  not  mere  dead  automatons.  I  have  known 
teachers  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  falsehood  in 
their  students  by  their  arbitrary  rules  as  to 
whispering,  calling  the  roll  at  the  close  of  each 
day,  and  requiring  the  students  to  report  the 
number  of  their  violations  of  the  rule. 

With  this  kindly  relation  early  established 
between  my  students  and  myself,  I  found  the 
months  and  years  of  my  teaching  in  Provi- 
dence among  the  most  pleasant  that  I  had  ever 
known  ;  and  as  weeks  passed  on  into  months, 
and  months  into  years,  I  felt  that  now  at  last 
—  my  preparation  for  my  profession  being 
finished,  except  in  so  far  as  I  could  continue 
it  myself  during  my  work  —  it  was  certain  that 
I  had  made  no  mistake  in  choosing  my  occu- 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       63 

pation  in  life.  I  can  still  say  that  I  can  con- 
ceive of  no  regular  life-work  more  attractive 
than  that  of  a  teacher  whose  life  is  devoted  to 
it.  One  result  of  this  harmonious  relation  be- 
tween myself  and  my  students  has  been  that 
now,  long  after  reaching  full  manhood  and 
womanhood,  they  consider  me  among  the  best 
friends  of  their  earlier  years  ;  and  it  is  a  joy 
indeed,  after  the  long  separation,  to  meet  them 
again,  and  to  hear,  by  tongue  or  by  pen,  the 
accounts  of  their  happy  and  successful  lives, 
and  of  their  vivid  memories  of  those  early  days 
in  school  or  college. 

One  of  the  members  of  our  school  board 
in  those  days  was  a  teacher  of  long  experience, 
who  kept,  quite  near  the  High  School,  "  Kings- 
bury's Private  School  for  Girls."  He  was  so 
popular  that  students  could  never  be  sure  of 
a  place  without  having  their  names  entered  a 
full  year  in  advance.  He  might  soon  have 
doubled  or  trebled  the  size  of  his  school,  but 
he  wished  to  have  every  student  under  his  own 
personal  management  and  instruction,  and  I 
do  not  think  that  he  ever  employed  an  assist- 
ant teacher.  His  personality  was  dignified, 
courteous,  yet  affable  and  kind  in  tone  and 
manner,  and   he  impressed  me  as  a  model 


64  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

teacher.  He  often  visited  my  school  in  his 
capacity  as  director,  and  once  or  twice,  hardly 
more,  I  had  the  great  privilege  of  looking  in 
upon  him  at  his  work  in  school  hours.  He 
gave  me  many  a  useful  hint  drawn  from  his 
early  experience.  He  once  told  me  that  he 
noticed  that  on  Monday  mornings  he  always 
observed  more  restlessness  and  inattention 
among  his  students  than  at  other  times,  and 
wondered,  at  jSrst,  what  was  the  cause.  Then 
he  observed  that  when  he  had  sickness  in  his 
family,  and  his  nights  had  been  thus  disturbed, 
his  students,  the  next  day,  were  restless  and 
inattentive,  and  he  could  not,  for  a  time,  ac- 
count for  the  apparent  connection  of  his  stu- 
dents with  his  own  affairs  at  home.  Gradually, 
however,  it  dawned  upon  his  mind  that  the 
restlessness  was  in  himself,  and  was  uncon- 
sciously transferred  to  his  pupils.  When  he 
became  fully  convinced  of  this  and  resolved 
to  correct  it  and  bring  his  own  mind  under 
proper  control,  all  went  well,  whatever  might 
be  the  day  of  the  week,  and  whatever  the 
condition  of  his  family  at  home.  Few  lessons 
received  from  other  teachers  have  proved  as 
serviceable  to  me  as  this  implied  lesson  from 
Dr.  Kingsbury. 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       65 

The  charter  of  Brown  University  is  so  drawn 
that  its  board  must  consist  of  a  certain  num- 
ber from  each  of  the  religious  denominations 
in  Rhode  Island,  and  among  these  the  Society 
of  Friends  had  a  fair  representation.  Dr. 
Kingsbury  told  me  that,  although  he  was,  I 
think,  a  Baptist,  he  had  been  chosen  as  the 
representative  of  the  Friends,  there  being  no 
suitable  Friend  presented  for  the  vacancy. 
I  am  sure  that  no  one  felt  that  the  name  of  so 
gentle  and  cultured  a  man  as  Dr.  Kingsbury 
would  ever  be  disapproved  by  any  one,  and 
that  no  disapproval  was  ever  expressed  or  en- 
tertained. 

Of  course  my  professor  of  pedagogics  in 
Brown,  Professor  Samuel  S.  Green,  followed 
me  quite  closely  in  my  school  work,  as  I  was  one 
of  the  first  in  this  country  to  be  graduated  in 
the  then  new  course  of  pedagogics.  My  obli- 
gation to  him  for  his  training  in  the  college 
class-room,  and  his  many  suggestions  to  me 
afterwards,  when  he  saw  me  at  work,  I  always 
recall  with  a  feeling  of  gratitude. 

Although  I  made  my  home  quite  near  the 
school  that  first  year  after  my  marriage,  I  soon 
found  that  it  would  be  better  for  my  health 
to  be  located  farther  from  the  school,  and  thus 


66  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

get  more  exercise  in  walking  to  and  fro.  By 
a  strange  tendency  of  human  nature,  health 
seems  to  be  better  preserved  by  forming  and 
following  good  habits  as  to  diet,  drink,  and 
exercise,  without  having  the  object  of  health 
too  prominently  before  the  mind.  Many,  both 
early  and  late  in  life,  are  prone  to  forget  this, 
or  not  to  act  upon  it,  and  they  never  fail  to 
sujffer  for  it. 

My  preparation  for  the  lessons  of  the  next 
day  was  usually  made  in  the  evening  hours 
at  home,  and  I  early  learned  that  no  success 
worthy  of  the  name  could  be  secured  without 
minute  and  careful  preparation.  I  thus  ac- 
quired the  habit  of  retiring  not  much  before 
midnight,  and  to  make  sure  of  leaving  home 
in  time  to  avoid  the  danger  of  late  arrival  at 
school,  early  rising  was  necessary.  But  the 
old  copy-book  motto  was  ever  before  me,  — 
"  Labor  omnia  vincit,"  —  and  my  heart  was 
in  my  little  home  and  in  my  work. 

The  board  of  managers  in  Providence  I 
shall  ever  remember  as  being  most  kind  and 
considerate,  helping  me  by  their  good  counsel 
in  many  ways,  and  fully  appreciating  the  ef- 
forts I  made.  I  began  my  small  housekeeping 
on  one  of  the  meagre  salaries  of  those  days, 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59        67 

six  hundred  dollars  a  year,  worth  then  perhaps 
about  what  one  thousand  would  be  to-day. 
The  kindness  of  the  board  showed  itself  early 
in  an  unexpected  and  welcome  manner.  As 
soon  as  they  heard  of  the  birth  of  my  first 
child,  without  a  request  on  my  part,  they  added 
one  hundred  dollars  to  my  salary.  The  same 
thing  was  done  on  the  birth  of  my  second 
child.  It  will  be  seen  later  that  they  had  not 
the  opportunity  to  continue  this  as  my  family 
increased. 

Our  first  home  was  in  a  small  rented  house 
toward  what  was  then  called  the  Red  Bridge, 
and  quite  near  the  rock  which  was  said  to  have 
been  the  landing-place  of  Roger  Williams, 
when  taking  flight  from  the  religious  perse- 
cution to  which  he  was  subjected  by  the  "Pil- 
grim Fathers."  But  we  were  not  long  satisfied 
with  this  small  house  on  the  Seekonk  River, 
of  which,  small  as  it  was,  we  could  afford  to 
occupy  only  one  half  (the  second  story),  and  I 
soon  bought  a  few  acres  of  land  north  of  the 
city,  near  Pawtucket,  and  there  built  a  house 
of  convenient  size  on  what  has  since  been 
called  Magill  Street,  as  our  home  was  the  first 
residence  erected  upon  it.  With  the  house 
I  included  about  three  acres  or  more  which  I 


68  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

early  planted  with  pears,  and  with  some  hired 
assistance  I  made  here  a  pleasant  home  for 
the  f onr  years  we  were  yet  to  remain  in  Prov- 
idence. As  I  found  enough  exercise  here  with- 
out walking  to  and  from  the  school,  now  some 
three  to  four  miles  away,  I  rode  in  the  omni- 
bus mornings  and  evenings,  no  trolleys  or 
electric  roads  of  any  kind  having  as  yet  of 
course  been  heard  of . 

It  was  about  or  soon  after  this  time  that  my 
third  year  in  the  Providence  school  was  com- 
pleted ;  and  the  three  years  of  necessary  study 
(one  lesson  a  day  in  college)  coming  to  a  close, 
I  presented  myself  to  Professor  Gammel  for 
examination  on  my  three  years'  work.  This 
had  been  largely  in  history  and  political  econ- 
omy, including  especially  Guizot's  "  History 
of  Civilization."  I  never  considered  that  this 
final  test  for  my  second  degree  was  a  severe 
one,  as  the  professor  knew  well  of  my  work  in 
Brown  the  first  year,  and  my  work  in  the  High 
School  the  three  succeeding  years.  He  was 
one  of  those  who  considered  that  earnest  work 
carried  on  systematically  and  patiently,  year 
after  year,  was  far  more  significant  in  deter- 
mining worthiness  of  a  degree  than  any  sudden 
and  spasmodic  effort  on  a  final  examination 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59      69 

day.  The  examination  seems  to  me  now,  as  I 
recall  it  (in  the  private  parlor  of  Professor 
Gammel's  house),  rather  a  general  conversation 
on  Guizot's  "History  of  Civilization/'  and  on 
general  topics  of  historical  interest,  than  a 
formal  and  rigid  test.  The  examination  was 
wholly  oral.  I  was  not  required  to  write  a 
word  during  the  two  or  more  hours  that  I 
spent  with  the  professor  on  that  memorable 
morning.  On  parting  he  said  to  me  kindly, 
that  he  was  prepared  to  recommend  me  for 
the  second  degree,  but  that  his  mind  had  been 
fully  made  up  as  to  the  recommendation  by 
keeping  careful  note  of  my  work  in  the  three 
years  just  passed. 

When  I  left  him  I  was  sure  that  the  goal  so 
long  aimed  at  through  six  anxious  and  labo- 
rious years  since  I  left  Benjamin  Hallowell's 
school  in  Alexandria  was  fully  reached  at 
last,  and  that  now  my  life  as  a  teacher,  how- 
ever imperfectly  prepared  for  at  first,  could  be 
said  to  have  a  most  auspicious  beginning. 
That  night  on  returning  to  my  little  home 
near  Pawtucket,  I  was  a  happy  man  indeed, 
and,  as  often,  I  called  up  my  daughter,  then 
not  quite  two  years  old.  As  usual  I  found  her 
already  put  to  bed  by  her  careful  mother,  who 


70  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

feared  that  it  would  injure  her  to  awaken  her 
from  her  early  sleep;  but  this  evening  the 
mother  made  no  objection,  and  we  three  en- 
joyed a  happy  evening  in  the  knowledge  that 
the  second  degree  had  been  won  at  last.  How 
much  our  eldest  born  appreciated  the  cause 
of  my  joy  I  could  not  say,  but  later,  when  her 
degrees  were  earned,  she  came  to  appreciate 
it  to  the  full.  In  the  following  month  my 
second  daughter  was  born,  the  first  child  born 
in  the  new  house.  Even  with  the  added  one 
hundred  dollars,  the  eight  hundred  dollars 
now  received  was  a  frugal  sum  even  then  for 
the  support  of  a  family ;  and  it  goes  without 
saying,  that  my  lot  was  bought  and  the  house 
built  on  borrowed  capital,  to  be  repaid  after 
my  income  became  sufiBciently  large  to  remove 
the  debt  and  support  my  family. 

Some  time  after  we  were  settled  in  North 
Providence,  when  at  work  on  my  grounds, 
I  was  exposed  to  a  late  autumn  rain.  My 
interest  in  my  garden  and  grounds  was  such 
that  I  continued  the  exposure  too  long,  and 
took  a  severe  cold,  the  result  of  which  was 
an  attack  of  typhoid  fever.  Winter  was  ap- 
proaching, and  now  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life  I  saw  before  me  a  long  illness.    With  the 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-69        71 

kind  consent  of  my  committee,  I  appointed 
a  trusty  student  as  monitor,  and  left  the 
school  entirely  to  him.  That  was  to  me  a 
most  depressing  winter,  and  there  were  times 
when  I  felt  that  my  life's  work  as  a  teacher, 
which  I  already  loved  so  well,  would  come  to 
an  early  termination.  But  by  careful  nursing, 
and  the  employment  of  what  was  then  called  a 
"  cold  water  doctor,"  who  4ealt  much  more  with 
baths  and  douches  than  with  medicine,  I  was 
ready  to  return  (after  more  than  three  months 
of  illness)  to  my  school  on  the  first  of  April. 
How  delightful  the  sensation  of  returning  to 
my  beloved  classes  and  my  attractive  work ! 
I  recall  the  moment  of  my  reappearance  on 
that  familiar  scene  as  though  it  were  but  yes- 
terday. As  I  opened  the  door  of  my  school- 
room, every  student  rose  to  receive  me,  and 
remained  standing  until  I  took  my  seat.  At 
first  I  made  a  short  visit,  and  expressed  my 
feelings  toward  them  in  a  few  grateful  words. 
Each  day  thereafter  I  made  a  visit,  gave  some 
necessary  directions,  got  "the  run"  of  the 
lessons,  and  by  the  end  of  a  week  I  was  on  full 
duty  again.  I  have  never  since,  so  long  as 
my  teaching  of  classes  lasted,  had  such  an  in- 
terruption.   With  the  kind  cooperation  of  all. 


72  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

committee,  parents,  students,  and  fellow-teach- 
ers, I  rapidly  gained  my  full  strength,  and 
went  on  as  before. 

Soon  after  my  return  I  met  my  good  old 
friend  Dr.  Wayland,  who  through  failing 
health  had  yielded  his  place  as  president  to 
his  successor.  Dr.  Barnas  Sears.  He  addressed 
me  most  cordially,  and  I  well  recall  his  earnest- 
ness of  manner  when  he  warned  me  against 
weariness  from  overdoing  in  intellectual  work ; 
*^for,"  he  added,  "when  one  wearies  from 
physical  exertion,  he  is  warned  in  time  to  de- 
sist, but  weariness  from  overwork  of  the  mind 
is  far  more  dangerous,  because  then  the  wea- 
riness is  often  not  perceptible  until  too  late." 
It  is  very  possible  that  this  valuable  counsel 
came  from  his  consciousness  of  having  too 
much  taxed  his  own  mind  in  the  struggle 
through  which  he  had  passed  in  introducing 
his  "New  College  System."  Be  that  as  it 
may,  the  country  may  well  honor  him  now, 
as  it  does,  for  the  great  change  which  he  was 
among  the  first  to  inaugurate  in  our  educa- 
tional conditions. 

An  important  case  of  discipline  in  the 
Providence  High  School  comes  to  my  mind  as 
I  write.  I  will  give  it  as  typical,  suggesting  one 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       73 

of  the  important  means  of  securing  the  cordial 
cooperation  of  students.  In  cases  of  absence 
from  school,  a  note  from  the  parent  was 
required,  giving  the  cause  of  absence.  One 
student  lost  much  time,  and  yet  the  note  of 
excuse  was  always  presented  on  his  return, 
signed  regularly  by  his  mother.  Feeling  anx- 
ious about  so  much  loss  of  time  by  one  in  ap- 
parent good  health,  I  called  upon  the  mother 
and  had  a  private  conversation  with  her,  show- 
ing her  the  numerous  notes  signed  with  her 
name.  She  was  shocked  and  grieved  beyond 
expression.  She  told  me  that  the  notes  were 
all  forged,  and  she  did  not  see  how  I  could 
ever  receive  her  son  into  the  school  again. 
The  boy  was  called  in  and  acknowleged  his 
falsehood,  and  said  he  could  not  ask  for  read- 
mission.  I  left  and  carefully  considered  the 
case  over  night,  having  promised  to  call  the 
next  day  and  decide  —  a  species  of  delay  in 
an  important  case  which  I  have  usually  fol- 
lowed through  life.  When  I  met  the  mother 
and  the  boy  there  were  three  sad  hearts  in 
that  room.  Although  the  boy  was  not  fond 
of  study,  he  had  always  been  a  good  boy  in 
other  respects.  I  said  that  I  had  decided  to 
consult  no  one,  and  by  my  own  authority  I 


74  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

would  readmit  him,  and  that  he  would  not 
lose  caste  among  his  fellows,  for  his  fault 
should  never  be  revealed.  After  that  I  could 
not  wish  for  a  better  friend  or  more  faithful 
student ;  and  to  this  day  the  secret  has  been 
kept.  He  became  later  an  honored  minister 
in  one  of  the  large  cities  of  this  country. 
Both  he  and  his  mother  passed  on,  some  years 
since,  to  the  higher  life. 

Our  first  little  country  home  near  Pawtucket 
became  in  time  a  favorite  visiting  place  for 
my  students,  who  were  usually  invited  out  at 
least  twice  every  year.  The  first  time  was 
to  a  strawberry  festival,  when  my  large  straw- 
berries were  in  their  glory,  the  vines  being 
loaded  down  with  the  ripe,  luscious  fruit  of 
the  most  approved  varieties ;  for  my  gardening 
was  my  pleasure  and  relaxation  on  holidays, 
and  during  the  term  in  the  early  morning  and 
late  evening  hours.  The  other  festival  came 
about  commencement  time,  before  we  sepa- 
rated for  the  summer  vacation.  I  remember 
one  of  these  occasions  when  the  students  were 
out  in  large  numbers.  Among  their  sports  they 
took  delight  in  bringing  out  our  eldest  daugh- 
ter, then  about  five  years  old.  There  was  a 
large  haycock  in  the  front  yard,  and  they 


PROVIDENCE   HIGH  SCHOOL:   1852-59       76 

placed  her  upon  this  and  told  her  to  make 
them  an  address.  Not  at  all  abashed,  she  stood 
up  in  her  place,  spread  out  her  Uttle  hands 
and  began  the  repetition  in  Greek  of  the  ora- 
tion which  one  of  them  had  been  trained  to 
speak  at  commencement.  When  she  began, 
the  boy  who  had  thus  placed  her  as  the 
orator  of  the  day,  cried  out,  "  Why,  you  are 
making  my  speech! "  and  he  has  since  referred 
to  this  occurrence  when  we  have  met  at  distant 
intervals.  We,  her  fond  parents,  little  foresaw 
that  she,  our  eldest,  would  be  among  the  first 
of  the  women  who  have  taken  a  university 
degree  in  this  country,  and  that  Latin  and 
Greek  would  be  among  her  favorite  studies. 

Much  as  I  enjoyed  my  work  in  the  Provi- 
dence High  School,  I  saw  no  opportunity  of 
rising  higher  in  that  position,  nor  of  com- 
manding more  than  the  small  sum  of  one 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  which  for  one  with  a 
growing  family,  and  largely  dependent  upon 
his  salary,  seemed  very  inadequate.  I  was  be- 
ginning to  think  that  I  might  soon  feel  like 
using  Dr.  Wayland's  kind  recommendation, 
and  seek  a  place  elsewhere,  without  waiting 
for  the  place  to  seek  me. 

About  this  time,  quite  to  my  surprise,  I  re- 


70  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

ceived  word  from  Dr.  Francis  Gardner,  then 
the  distinguished  head  of  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  that  he  would  like  to  visit  me  in  my 
school,  of  which  he  said  he  had  heard  good 
reports.  Of  course  I  opened  the  way  for  him 
to  do  so,  and  he  came  one  morning,  and  spent 
the  entire  school  day  hearing  different  classes 
recite  and  witnessing  some  written  examina- 
tions. He  was  a  keen  observer,  and  no  word 
was  uttered,  or  order  given,  that  did  not 
arrest  his  eager  attention.  I  well  recall  his 
volunteered  criticism  on  my  method  of  teach- 
ing the  scanning  of  Virgil's  iEneid  and  the 
Eclogues.  I  had  long  felt  that  the  rhythmical 
and  monotonous  chant  so  generally  adopted 
in  reading  Latin  verses  was  wholly  artificial 
and  unnatural,  and  I  strove  to  combine  the 
expression  of  thought  of  the  author  with  the 
metrical  reading.  It  seemed  to  me  so  extremely 
unlikely  that  in  the  days  of  Virgil  and  Lucre- 
tius there  should  have  been  so  vast  a  differ- 
ence between  reading  according  to  the  sense 
and  reading  according  to  the  metre.  I  was 
somewhat  proud  of  my  success  in  this  combi- 
nation, largely  my  own  device,  and  I  showed, 
plainly  to  Dr.  Gardner  just  what  I  was  doing, 
and  why.    His  reply,  given  in  his  brusque  and 


FRANCIS  GARDNER,  LL.  D. 


OF  tmf: 
UNIVERSITY 


PROVIDENCE  HIGH  SCHOOL:  1852-59       77 

impulsive  manner,  was  simply  this :  ''  When 
my  students  read  Latin  they  read  it ;  and 
when  they  scan  it  they  scan  it;  they  never 
mix  them."  Of  course  that  brusque  reply 
seemed  "  a  settler/'  and  I  considered  that  my 
day's  work  with  him  was  a  failure,  and  that  I 
should  hear  of  him  no  more. 

What  then  was  my  surprise  and  pleasure  a 
few  days  later  to  have  a  letter  from  him  invit- 
ing me  to  come  to  Boston  and  take  the  position 
of  First  Submaster  in  the  Latin  School,  when 
it  should  reopen  in  the  fall.  I  have  said  that 
some  change  had  been  thought  of  by  me  as 
soon  to  be  desired,  but  to  go  from  my  attrac- 
tive work  in  Providence  to  the  position  next 
to  the  head  of  the  most  distinguished  classical 
school  in  New  England  was  far  beyond  my 
highest  hopes  and  dreams.  My  attachment  to 
my  students  in  Providence,  the  invariable 
kindness  and  courtesy  of  the  members  of  my 
committee,  and  what  then  seemed  to  me  very 
important  —  the  immediate  proximity  of  my 
Alma  Mater,  where  I  was  so  well  known  — 
all  of  these  considerations  rose  before  me 
and  made  my  decision  an  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult one.  But  I  soon  saw  clearly  that  the  way 
thus   unexpectedly   opening  before   me   was 


78  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

really  providential  and  not  accidental,  and  I 
accepted  the  position.  That  I  did  so  thus 
promptly  was  one  of  the  best  things  that  I  re- 
member. I  had  then  taught  eight  years  with- 
out adequate  preparation,  taken  three  years  to 
complete  the  preparation,  and  had  now  served 
seven  years  in  the  position  for  which  I  had 
been  laboriously  prepared,  and  the  next  step 
— Boston  and  the  Latin  School  —  was  plain 
before  me. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

SUBMASTER  IN  BOSTON  PUBLIC   LATIN  SCHOOL 

1859-1867 

ONE  circumstance  caused  me  some  anxiety 
during  the  summer  vacation  of  1859. 
This  was  that  as  I  was  to  have  charge  of  the 
second  class  in  the  Latin  School,  a  class  with 
but  one  year  more  before  entering  college, 
most  of  them  going  to  Harvard,  I  must  teach 
these  forty  students,  in  two  divisions,  not  one 
or  two  subjects  only,  but  all  the  studies  they 
pursued.  This  was  Dr.  Gardner's  method  — 
to  divide  the  classes  as  to  age  and  numbers, 
but  not  make  a  division  among  the  teachers 
of  the  various  studies  pursued.  Now  I  felt 
sufiiciently  famihar  with  all  the  subjects  re- 
quired except  one,  and  in  that  I  knew  I  should 
have  to  work  hard  to  give  satisfaction.  This 
was  French.  I  had  studied  French  very  im- 
perfectly in  Brown,  and  felt  that  through  that 
summer  vacation  I  must  practically  begin 
anew.   But  I  employed  an  excellent  French 


80  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

teacher,  and  to  French  I  gave  every  moment 
of  that  summer  that  I  could  possibly  spare. 
Even  then,  when  September  came,  I  dreaded 
the  French  far  more  than  any  other  study  in- 
trusted to  my  care.  But  we  had  a  model  of 
French  pronunciation  before  us  at  every  reci- 
tation. This  was  "  Professor  "  Montrachy.  He 
knew  very  little  English  and  simply  read  the 
French  and  corrected  the  students'  pronuncia- 
tion as  they  read  after  him.  My  great  trouble 
was  the  pronunciation,  which  can  be  learned 
better  from  speech  than  from  books. 

During  the  summer  of  1859  I  was  prepar- 
ing for  my  removal  from  Providence  to  Bos- 
ton. Although  I  was  fully  conscious  that  this 
change  was  a  material  advance  in  my  profes- 
sion, —  to  prepare  for  which  I  had  spent  so 
much  time  and  all  of  my  limited  means,  still, 
the  change  of  locahty  and  surroundings  was 
painful  to  me.  I  had  never  failed  since  my 
graduation  from  Brown  in  1852  to  be  present 
at  the  annual  commencements.  I  felt  then,  as 
I  have  felt  more  and  more  deeply  with  each 
passing  year,  that  my  obligation  to  my  Alma 
Mater,  with  all  the  wider  outlook  on  the  world 
which  it  had  given  me,  was  one  which  no  gift  of 
money  could  ever  adequately  repay,  and  that  the 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:   1869-^7    81 

very  least  I  could  do  would  be  to  be  present  on 
these  public  occasions  and  encourage  by  my  pre- 
sence, and  by  my  words  if  need  be,  this  work. 
I  had  resolved  to  encourage  young  men  and 
boys  who  were  to  come  under  my  influence  to 
obtain,  when  possible,  a  college  education  and 
not  an  abbreviated  one,  if  that  could  possibly 
be  avoided.  But  when  I  reflected  that  the 
school  into  which  I  was  now  about  to  enter 
was  a  very  important  one  in  the  preparation 
of  young  men  for  the  earliest  established  and 
at  that  time  the  most  advanced  of  all  the  col- 
leges in  our  country,  the  thought  made  the 
separation  from  familiar  friends  and  a  settled 
home  somewhat  easier  to  bear.  Therefore, 
after  disposing  of  the  first  home  of  our  own 
which  we  had  established,  where  our  second 
daughter  was  born,  and  where  the  third  daugh- 
ter had  been  recently  added  to  our  family,  we 
chartered  a  freight  car,  loaded  it  with  our 
movable  worldly  belongings,  bade  adieu  to 
our  good  friends  —  the  Sissons  on  one  side, 
the  Anthonys  on  the  other,  and  the  Chaces  a 
little  farther  away  at  Valley  Falls  —  and  took 
train  for  Jamaica  Plain,  a  few  miles  out  of 
Boston,  where  we  had  rented  a  pleasant  home. 
Another  circumstance  which  I  call  provi- 


82  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

dential  was  that  this  new  home  of  ours  was 
but  a  few  minutes'  walk  from  the  residence  of 
one  whom  I  have  always  regarded  as  one  of 
the  best,  most  clear-sighted  and  conscientious 
men  I  have  ever  known — James  Freeman 
Clarke.  No  words  of  mine  can  do  full  justice 
to  the  excellent  influence  exercised  by  him  and 
his  family  over  myself  and  mine.  There  were 
no  meetings  of  our  branch  of  the  Religious 
Society  of  Friends  in  or  near  Boston,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  the  "Church  of  the 
Disciples,"  of  which  James  Freeman  Clarke 
was  the  pastor,  became  our  rehgious  home. 
Our  creed  was  a  simple  one.  It  read,  as  I 
recall  the  words :  "  We  beHeve  in  God,  and 
unite  for  the  study  and  practice  of  Christian- 
ity." That  surely  ought  to  be  a  creed  which 
any  Christian,  no  matter  to  what  denomina- 
tion he  may  belong,  could  consistently  adopt. 
So  at  least  it  seemed  to  us,  and  we  were  early 
connected  with  this  church,  and  in  the  Sun- 
day-school there  my  eldest  daughters  were 
trained  during  most  of  the  eight  years  of  our 
residence  near  Boston. 

How  vividly,  after  forty-six  years,  I  recall 
the  day  when  we,  my  wife  and  three  daughters 
—  the  youngest  in  her  mother's  arms  —  and 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    83 

myself,  with  all  our  worldly  possessions,  ar- 
rived at  our  new  home  in  Jamaica  Plain,  to 
take  up  the  burdens  of  life  among  strangers. 
In  the  midst  of  the  preparations  for  removal 
—  the  sale  of  real  estate,  the  packing  of  our 
household  goods,  and  the  making  of  farewell 
visits  to  our  few  warm  friends  —  I  had  never 
had  the  duties  of  the  new  position,  and  espe- 
cially the  difficulty  about  the  French  classes 
(for  which  I  was  then  so  imperfectly  prepared) 
out  of  my  mind  for  two  consecutive  waking 
hours ;  nor  were  they  wholly  absent  from  my 
troubled  dreams.  Of  course  we  were  weary 
and  glad  of  rest  when  we  reached  the  new 
house;  but,  as  the  time  to  open  the  school 
was  fast  approaching,  the  unpacking  and  set- 
tUng  required  the  utmost  exertion  of  ourselves 
and  a  domestic.  The  Sunday  which  followed 
our  arrival  could  not  be  devoted  to  anything 
but  household  affairs.  No  church  service  could 
be  thought  of,  and  when  the  opening  day  of 
the  school  came  and  I  left  home  by  train,  to 
ride  the  few  miles  into  Boston  and  meet  Dr. 
Gardner  and  my  classes  in  the  Latin  School, 
then  located  on  Bedford  Street,  two  squares 
from  the  Common,  it  was  with  an  anxiety 
which  no  words  can  adequately  describe. 


84  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

In  my  first  brief  talk  with  Dr.  Gardner  he 
suggested  that  he  would  go  into  my  class  with 
me,  and  make  a  few  introductory  remarks.  I 
asked  him  what  he  would  say  to  the  class ;  he 
replied  :  "  I  would  not  say  much ;  but  simply 
introduce  you,  and  say  that  you  had  been  at 
the  head  of  the  Providence  High  School  since 
your  graduation  in  Brown  University  seven 
years  ago ;  and  if  you  boys  can,  in  any  way, 
get  ahead  of  him,  you  are  welcome  to  try.  I 
assure  you  that  he  will  be  quite  ready  for  you 
to  attempt  it."  I  thanked  him  for  his  proposed 
introduction,  but  said  that  I  would  not  trouble 
him,  but  that,  with  his  permission,  I  would  in- 
troduce myself.  I  had  learned  before  from  the 
doctor  that  the  class  had  given  considerable 
trouble  to  previous  teachers ;  it  was  natural, 
therefore,  for  him  to  think  that  such  a  warn- 
ing as  he  proposed  might  be  necessary  to  give 
me  proper  standing  with  them.  But  I  felt  that 
my  own  method  was  preferable  for  myself. 

On  meeting  the  boys  I  said  a  very  few 
words,  expressing  my  pleasure  in  meeting  a 
class  which  had  been  for  three  years  under  the 
excellent  training  of  the  Latin  School,  and  who 
were  now  within  two  years  of  entering  Har- 
vard, which  I  hoped  they  all  might  do  in  1861, 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    85 

without  conditions.  I  assured  them  that  I 
would  do  anything  in  my  power  the  present 
year  to  bring  about  this  result,  and  then,  as 
usual,  turn  them  over  to  Dr.  Gardner  for  their 
last  year  of  training.  I  made  no  allusion,  by 
word  or  act,  to  discipline,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  good  order  and  cooperation  with  me  in 
my  labors  for  their  good  were  to  be  expected 
of  all.  Then  I  entered  upon  the  classifica- 
tion and  assignment  of  lessons  in  the  various 
studies  pursued.  They  seemed  to  take  well 
what  I  said,  but  I  soon  found  that  there  was 
a  spirit  of  activity  and  restlessness  among 
them,  and  that  they  were  likely  to  prove  a 
very  different  class  of  boys  from  that  which  I 
had  taught  in  the  Providence  High  School  for 
seven  years  past.  They  were  evidently  disposed 
to  test  the  mettle  of  the  new  teacher.  Little 
unexpected  occurrences  would  distract  them 
from  their  study,  and  some,  even  among  the 
best  of  the  scholars,  were  evidently  ready  for 
an  outbreak ;  they  were  not  the  gentle,  sym- 
pathetic students  I  had  left  in  Providence. 

The  day  wore  on,  and  I  had  a  class  before 
me  in  the  beginning  of  the  -^neid.  Suddenly 
a  word  which  I  had  read  to  them  was  called 
out  loudly  by  a  dozen  voices  at  once,  fairly 


86  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

startling  me.  When  I  inquired  what  they 
meant,  they  told  me,  in  a  triumphant  tone, 
that  Dr.  Gardner  trained  all  the  classes  to  cor- 
rect every  error  in  pronunciation  which  they 
heard.  To  make  them  quick  to  detect  false 
quantities,  he  gave  a  credit  to  the  one  whose 
voice  he  first  distinguished  in  the  correction. 
This,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  was  like  a  cus- 
tom of  the  English  Parliament,  where  a  mis- 
take in  quantity  in  quoting  a  Latin  author  is 
greeted  with  derision.  Of  course,  the  doctor 
had  directed  them  to  correct  each  other  in  that 
way ;  but  they  were  not  expected  to  have 
teachers  who  would  be  Hable  to  such  correction. 
I  saw  at  once  that  I  must  be  absolutely  sure 
of  the  quantity  of  every  Latin  word  before  I 
ventured  to  read  aloud  before  the  class.  No 
further  outbreak  occurred  that  first  day. 

The  session  closed  at  the  usual  hour,  and 
all  were  dismissed,  there  being  but  one  session. 
An  extra  afternoon  session  was  given  to  all 
the  delinquents  of  the  morning,  whom  the 
teacher  must  always  meet.  Before  the  after- 
noon delinquent  session  closed,  I  saw  that  the 
quiet  persistent  spirit  of  hard  study  and  good 
order  was  by  no  means  as  manifest  in  this 
mercurial  company  of  Boston  boys  as  in  that 


BOSTON  PUBLIC   LATIN   SCHOOL:   1859-67    87 

to  which  I  had  so  long  been  accustomed ;  but 
I  did  not  reflect  that  it  had  taken  me  seven 
years  of  patient  labor  in  Providence  to  secure 
the  result  there,  and  in  my  new  position,  where 
I  was  scarcely  known,  I  could  not  expect  to 
begin  with  boys  having  the  same  spirit  as 
those  whom  I  had  left  behind  me.  Hence,  on 
this  first  night,  when  I  returned  to  my  little 
family  at  Jamaica  Plain,  I  quite  broke  down, 
expressed  bitter  regret  that  I  had  made  the 
change,  and  felt  that  a  disgraceful  failure  was 
before  me,  such  as  some  of  my  predecessors 
had  met  with — Phillips  Brooks  among  the 
number.  But  the  next  morning,  after  a  good 
night's  rest,  I  felt  quite  myself  again,  and  I 
am  sure  that  never  after,  in  all  my  experience 
as  teacher,  professor,  and  president,  has  the 
fear  of  absolute  failure  so  haunted  me  as  it 
did  after  that  first  day  in  the  Boston  Latin 
School.  I  firmly  resolved  that  from  that  day 
on  there  should  be  in  my  vocabulary  no  such 
word  as  failj  and  it  was  not  long  before  my 
earnest  efforts  were  rewarded  with  all  the 
success  I  could  desire.  When  the  students 
saw  that  force  was  to  be  met  not  by  force,  but 
by  gentleness  and  kind  expostulation,  they 
showed  themselves  as  amenable  to  ordinary 


88  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

human  sympathies  as  I  could  reasonably  ex- 
pect. 

It  was  the  habit  of  our  master,  Dr.  Gard- 
ner, to  visit  and  examine  our  classes  at  rather 
frequent  and  irregular  intervals,  and  at  first 
I  dreaded  these  tests ;  but  it  was  not  many 
months  before  I  was  glad  of  his  visits,  for  I 
caught  the  thorough  spirit  of  our  great  mas- 
ter, and  his  comments  were  an  efficient  means 
of  keeping  my  students  well  up  to  their 
work. 

Our  organization  was  peculiar :  our  five 
rooms  (later  six  rooms),  of  about  forty  stu- 
dents each,  were  divided  into  two  classes, 
called  first  and  second  divisions.  The  whole 
forty,  on  promotion,  were  about  on  an  equality 
as  to  the  ground  gone  over  in  the  year,  but 
the  difference  was  in  the  thoroughness  of  the 
work,  depending  upon  natural  ability  and 
incHnation.  This  arrangement  applied  to  all 
the  classes  in  the  school,  and  when  the  course 
was  ended  and  our  first  division  went  to  Har- 
vard, the  doctor  gave  them  all  what  he  called 
a  "clean  bill  of  health."  These  men  had  for 
years  been  admitted  to  Harvard  without  "  con- 
ditions." The  second  division  men  were,  of 
course,  more  or  less  conditioned,  and  occasion- 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    89 

ally  rejected.  The  doctor  used  to  boast  that 
for  years  no  first  division  man  that  he  had 
sent  up  had  received  a  single  condition. 

Dr.  Gardner's  system  of  organization,  re- 
quiring each  teacher  to  instruct  his  own  class 
in  all  of  the  branches  studied  during  the  year, 
had  the  great  advantage  of  making  us  very 
familiar  with  the  character  and  habits  of  the 
students  under  our  care.  It  also  required  us 
to  keep  up  and  advance  our  scholarship  in  a 
number  of  subjects.  The  more  modern  method 
of  giving  only  one  subject  to  each  teacher  — 
or  the  departmental  method  —  may  be  the 
most  favorable  for  obtaining  a  mastery,  on 
the  part  of  both  teachers  and  students,  of  the 
subjects  taught.  I  confess,  however,  that  the 
desirability  of  knowing  well  and  appreciating 
the  character  of  our  students  inclines  me  still, 
after  much  subsequent  reflection  and  observa- 
tion, to  prefer  the  doctor's  to  the  more  modern 
method,  at  least  in  preparatory  schools ;  it  may 
be  hardly  practicable  in  a  college  course. 

Dr.  Gardner  had  a  most  striking  method  of 
presenting  his  thought  on  all  subjects,  and  I 
have  never  forgotten  his  three  requirements 
for  a  thoroughly  good  and  successful  teacher. 
They  were,  first,  "integrity;"  second,  "power 


90  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

of  control;"  and  third,  and  least  important 
(he  would  add  for  emphasis),  "  knowledge  of 
the  subject  to  be  taught."  Of  course  he  did 
not  regard  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  sub- 
ject as  by  any  means  unimportant  for  the  suc- 
cessful teacher. 

The  three  qualities  which  he  thus  named  I 
am  sure  that  he  himself  possessed  in  a  very 
high  degree.  He  surely  did  a  good  work 
among  the  young  by  naming  integrity,  the 
foundation  of  character,  as  the  essential  thing. 
He  would  make  fine  scholars  of  all  who  passed 
under  his  influence  during  those  formative 
years,  but  he  was  more  concerned  to  make 
noble  men  of  his  boys  than  have  them  gain 
any  amount  of  scholarship  by  poring  over 
books.  Fortunately,  the  two  things  are  by  no 
means  inconsistent  with  each  other,  and  when 
harmoniously  blended  they  make  well-rounded 
men  and  women. 

Here  let  me  say  that  while  our  good  doctor 
was  engaged  in  training  men  only,  as  the 
Latin  School  admitted  only  boys,  he  did  not 
discourage  me,  before  my  eight  years  in  the 
school  were  much  more  than  half  over,  from 
bringing  to  the  school  with  me  my  eldest 
daughter.   He  allowed  her  for  several  years  to 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    91 

receive  the  far-famed  Latin  School  training  in 
classes  where  she  was  the  only  girl.  I  then 
had  no  sons,  but  four  years  after  I  began  as 
Dr.  Gardner's  submaster,  my  only  son  was 
born  —  in  1863;  we  had  no  hesitation  in 
naming  him  Francis  Gardner  Magill.  I  must 
not  dwell  here  upon  what  has  been  a  bright 
and  hopeful  period  of  my  life,  but  can  only 
say  that  this  boy,  after  the  promise  of  a  bright 
future,  passed  on  to  the  life  beyond,  at  the 
age  of  nine  years  —  our  only  loss  in  a  family 
of  six  children. 

But  to  return  to  my  experiences  in  the 
Latin  School.  I  learned  early  a  peculiar  method 
of  marking  recitations,  adopted  by  Dr.  Gard- 
ner, which  did  much  to  secure  accurate  scholar- 
ship. Lessons  were  marked  on  a  scale  of  five, 
that  being  the  highest  mark.  The  students 
exchanged  places  in  class  by  a  regrading  at 
the  end  of  each  month,  standing  for  a  month 
in  the  places  won  the  previous  month.  The 
questions  were  passed  around  rapidly  by  the 
teacher,  and  every  failure  to  answer  reduced 
by  one  the  maximum  mark  of  five.  When  the 
question  was  answered  correctly  by  one  lower 
down  in  the  class,  the  next  question  went  back 
to  the  one  who  first  missed ;  thus  no  one  could 


92  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

escape  his  turn  until  he  had  given  a  correct 
answer.  If  five  of  these  mistakes  had  been 
made,  the  student  was  sent  back  to  his  seat  to 
study,  and  was  further  required  to  return  to 
the  delinquent  session  in  the  afternoon.  No 
answers  partially  right  were  accepted,  and  the 
doctor  used  to  quote  a  distinguished  teacher 
of  that  day,  George  Sumner,  as  saying  that 
'^  a  middling  good  recitation  was  like  a  mid- 
dling good  egg,  i.  e.  good  for  nothing."  This 
illustrates  the  rapid  and  precise  work  that  was 
required  in  the  Latin  School. 

With  all  Dr.  Gardner's  severity,  he  was  al- 
ways scrupulously  just,  and  no  teacher  could 
hope  to  secure  greater  respect  from  or  greater 
influence  over  his  students  than  he.  Each  of 
the  eight  successive  years  that  I  passed  under 
him,  I  saw  more  and  more  the  source  of  his 
power,  and  the  excellent  character  of  the  man. 
He  was  the  last  of  the  five  truly  great  teachers 
of  whom  I  have  spoken ;  and  although  it  is 
dif&cult  to  compare  men  so  different  in  quali- 
ties of  mind  and  character  as  were  these  five, 
I  should  not  do  justice  to  my  own  feelings 
and  convictions  if  I  placed  Dr.  Gardner  last 
among  them  in  ability,  as  he  happened  to  be 
in  point  of  time. 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    93 

A  very  important  cause  of  whatever  success 
I  attained  in  the  Latin  School  was  that  I  was 
building  on  another  man's  foundation,  and 
that  foundation  was  the  work  of  one  of  the 
most  patient  and  painstaking  teachers  I  have 
ever  known,  Charles  J.  Capen.  He  had  entered 
upon  the  submastership  in  1852,  and  was  head 
of  the  Third  Eoom  when  I  came,  in  1859. 
Dr.  Gardner's  methods  aimed  at  more  rapid 
progress  than  Mr.  Capen's,  and  I  soon  saw  I 
must  secure  the  same  capacity  for  rapid  work 
before  I  sent  the  classes  to  the  head  of  the 
school.  In  a  recent  letter  from  Mr.  Capen, 
he  says :  "  I  have  completed  fifty-four  years 
of  service  in  the  Latin  School  without  being 
absent  a  minute  on  account  of  sickness  or 
other  disabihty,  nor  have  I  ever  been  tardy 
on  account  of  my  own  neglect,  but  only  when 
the  cars  have  failed  to  be  on  time  on  account 
of  snow."    What  an  unprecedented  record  !^ 

The  method  of  preparing  the  lesson  and  the 
rapid  pace  of  the  recitation  in  the  Latin  School 
under  the  regime  of  Dr.  Gardner  are  worthy 

1  Mr.  Capen  is  now  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  highly 
honored  members  of  the  Boston  Public  School  Association. 
His  former  students  and  colleagues  have  presented  the 
school  with  an  excellent  portrait  of  him,  to  commemorate 
the  completion  of  his  fiftieth  year  of  service. 


9^  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

of  a  passing  notice.  Accurate  scholarship, 
readiness  in  quotation,  making  their  knowledge 
their  own  for  all  purposes,  and  knowing  just 
what  they  knew  and  what  they  did  not  know, 
became  in  those  days  a  marked  characteristic 
of  the  students  of  the  Latin  School.  This  ac- 
curacy, precision,  and  readiness,  thus  culti- 
vated, made  our  Latin  School  boys  who  decided 
to  enter  business  instead  of  pursuing  a  college 
course  eagerly  sought  for  by  leading  business 
men.  The  English  High  School,  occupying 
one  side  of  the  building  on  Bedford  Street, 
in  which  we  worked,  was  especially  designed 
to  give  the  boys  business  training;  but  the 
Latin  School,  at  the  period  of  which  I  speak, 
1859-67,  had  the  reputation  of  preparing 
boys,  even  for  business,  better  than  they  were 
prepared  elsewhere.  Of  this  distinction  I  saw 
that  the  doctor  was  reasonably  proud,  after  his 
lifelong  work  at  the  head  of  the  school.  He 
had  a  habit  of  saying  that  even  a  Latin  School 
dunce  was  different  from  any  other  dunce,  for 
although  he  might  know  but  little,  he  knew 
well  what  little  he  knew;  and,  what  is  very 
important,  he  knew  at  once  that  he  did  not 
know  what  he  did  not  know.  Hence  the  most 
thorough  preparation  of  every  lesson  was  con- 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    96 

stantly  impressed  upon  the  boys  as  a  matter 
of  the  highest  importance. 

Every  class  in  the  Latin  School  in  my  time 
was  known  by  the  name  (or  names)  of  its 
recognized  head  (or  heads)  in  the  matter  of 
scholarship.  The  class  that  I  first  met  in  the 
fall  of  1859  soon  came  to  have  two  recognized 
leaders,  and  was  called  Paine  and  Mifflin's 
class.  Sumner  Paine  and  George  H.  Mifflin 
ran  a  pretty  even  race,  and  would  exchange 
places  as  to  first  and  second  with  almost  every 
new  month.  I  was  soon  made  proud  of  that 
first  class  of  mine,  for  after  a  few  attempts  to 
give  the  new  teacher  trouble,  they  seemed  to 
vie  with  each  other  to  see  who  could  behave 
the  best. 

Forty-six  years  have  passed  since  then,  and 
where  are  those  two  leaders  now?  Of  the  two, 
Paine  had  an  early  and  tragic  death.  The  class 
entered  Harvard  in  the  summer  of  1861.  The 
country  was  then  just  on  the  eve  of  the  War 
of  the  Eebellion,  brought  on  by  the  cruel 
system  of  slavery.  Young  men  from  different 
colleges  throughout  the  North  put  aside  their 
books  and  were  enrolled  for  war.  Of  these 
Paine  was  among  the  first ;  he  enlisted  in  a 
company  headed  by  his  cousin,  Oliver  Wendell 


96  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Holmes,  Jr.  There  was  no  first  lieutenant,  and 
Paine  was  chosen  second  lieutenant.  Robert 
Treat  Paine,  now  so  well  known  for  his  advo- 
cacy of  the  peace  cause  among  other  good 
causes,  and  who  is  the  president  of  the  Amer- 
ican Peace  Society,  has  lately  written  me  of 
his  brother  Sumner's  fate.  He  says :  "  Sumner 
went  into  the  war  with  tremendous  enthusi- 
asm. That  was  just  the  way  in  which  he  did 
everything ;  nothing  by  halves.  He  joined  the 
army  the  evening  before  the  battle  of  Chan- 
cellorsville.  He  was  the  second  lieutenant  in 
the  company  of  which  his  cousin,  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes,  Jr.,  was  captain,  there  being  at 
that  time  no  first  lieutenant  with  the  regiment. 
When  therefore,  as  the  battle  began.  Holmes 
was  wounded  and  carried  from  the  field,  Sum- 
ner was  left  in  command  of  his  company  in  a 
pitched  battle,  before  he  had  been  in  the  army 
twenty-four  hours  —  and  he  a  boy  of  eighteen 
years  of  age. 

"  Then  followed  the  six  weeks'  retreat  to 
Gettysburg,  where  Sumner  was  killed.  It  was 
on  the  third  day,  on  Friday  afternoon.  Pick- 
ett's division  had  just  made  its  great  charge 
upon  our  lines,  and  had  broken  through  them 
at  a  little  to  the  right  of  where  Sumner's  regi- 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    97 

ment  was  posted.  A  charge  was  ordered,  and 
Sumner  was  out  in  front  of  his  company  lead- 
ing on  his  men,  with  his  sword  waved  on  high ; 
and  his  last  word  was  '  Forward  ! '  when  he 
was  struck,  and  fell,  shot  dead  in  a  moment 
of  victory  at  the  culminating  moment  of  the 
war." 

Of  the  other  rival  for  the  headship  of  my 
first  Latin  School  class,  in  1859-60,  I  need 
only  say  that  he  is  now  the  head  of  the 
publishing  firm  who  are  bringing  out  this 
booh.  After  a  separation  of  more  than  forty 
years,  I  have  recently  met  him,  and  find  him 
in  heart  the  same  enthusiastic  boy  of  those 
distant  days.  Among  many  other  evidences 
of  this,  I  may  very  properly  mention  the  fact 
that  I  taught  him  phonography,  and  though 
the  knowledge  then  acquired  of  this  beauti- 
ful art  had  lain  dormant  in  his  mind  through 
all  of  these  many  intervening  years,  it  had 
so  fixed  his  attention  that  he  recalled  it  very 
soon  after  we  met.  In  spite  of  his  many  con- 
fining business  cares,  he  quickly  took  it  up 
again,  and  visited  me  in  New  York,  after 
sending  me  certain  phonographic  letters  of 
mine,  preserved  in  his  manuscript  volume  of 
"Memorabilia  of   the    Latin    School."    We 


98  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

at  once  reestablished  our  correspondence  in 
phonography,  using  this  original  style  taught 
by  Benn  Pitman  and  Jerome  B.  Howard  in 
their  Phonographic  Institute  in  Cincinnati, 
and  we  have  kept  up  this  correspondence  to 
the  present  hour.  How  he  has  been  able  to  do 
so,  with  all  of  his  other  cares  and  labors,  is  a 
mystery  to  me,  but  at  this  moment,  as  I  write, 
he  is  a  more  perfect  adept  in  the  practice  of 
this  beautiful  system  than  I  have  ever  been. 

Another  of  the  eight  classes  which  I  taught 
in  the  Latin  School,  from  1859  to  1867,  was 
called  Gallagher's  class ;  in  that  good  class 
Gallagher  had  no  rival.  His  scholarship  was 
of  that  degree  of  perfection  which  comes  from 
the  rapid  mental  training  through  which  our 
system  carried  them,  implying  a  complete  mas- 
tery of  the  subject  in  hand.  Dr.  Gardner  said 
of  Gallagher  what  was  true  to  some  extent 
of  the  other  good  scholars  :  "  Gallagher  could 
commit  a  lesson  in  one  half  the  time  required 
by  any  other  boy,  and  yet  he  spent  upon  his 
lessons  double  the  time  of  any  other."  In- 
deed, Gallagher  always  said  that  when  he  had 
"  gotten  out "  his  lesson  (in  Greek  or  Latin 
chiefly)  he  was  just  ready  to  begin  his  study 
of  it.  I  had  the  habit  of  timing  the  students 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    99 

in  their  recitations,  and  the  question  before 
us  was  not  merely,  did  they  know  the  lesson 
passably,  but  how  rapidly  and  correctly  could 
they  recite  it.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  the 
better  scholars  of  the  class  to  recite  their 
translations  of  Virgil,  as  literally  as  the  use 
of  good  English  would  allow,  at  the  rate  of 
one  hundred  lines  in  eight  minutes,  I  holding 
my  watch  to  time  them. 

After  leaving  college,  Gallagher  became 
the  successful  head  of  the  Williston  Seminary 
at  Easthampton,  where,  as  I  have  said,  I 
passed  the  year  1849-50  in  preparation  for 
Yale.  He  occupied  his  position  with  fine  suc- 
cess, as  so  thorough  a  worker  was  sure  to  do, 
until  he  felt  that  he  could  do  better  in  his 
profession  by  accepting  the  mastership  of  the 
High  School  in  Braintree,  Massachusetts. 
About  the  time  I  was  penning  these  lines  in 
my  present  home  in  New  York  city,  a  card 
was  handed  me,  and  I  saw  on  it  with  delight 
the  famiKar  name  of  William  Gallagher.  It 
may  well  be  supposed  that  our  meeting  was  a 
most  cordial  one,  we  having  met  but  once,  at 
Swarthmore,  since  I  left  the  Latin  School  in 
1867,  thirty-eight  years  ago.  Certainly  one  of 
the  greatest  pleasures  of  a  teacher's  life  is  to 


100  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

meet  grateful  and  appreciative  students,  who 
feel  that  their  lives  have  been  made  more  use- 
ful by  what  they  learned  at  school.  Such  ex- 
periences would  be  more  frequent  were  there 
among  students  more  Gallaghers  than  the 
world  has  thus  far  produced. 

I  recall  vividly  two  others  of  my  especially 
apt  pupils  in  the  Latin  School,  Brooks  and 
Ames ;  two  warm  friends,  who  worked  a  great 
deal  together.  I  have  not  met  Ames  since  I 
left  the  Latin  School,  but  have  had  recent 
word  from  him,  and  am  not  surprised  to  learn 
that  he  stands  high  at  Harvard  in  the  profes- 
sion of  the  law.  Brooks  was  a  brother  of  Phil- 
lips Brooks,  whose  useful  life  and  brilhant 
career  as  a  pulpit  orator  the  world  knows 
well.  Arthur  Brooks,  the  brother,  who  was  in 
my  Latin  School  class,  became  a  successful 
preacher  in  New  York,  where  I  met  him  a  few 
years  ago ;  but  now  he  too  has  passed  on  with 
the  rest.  A  younger  brother  of  the  Brooks 
family  was  for  a  short  time  with  me  in  the 
Latin  School,  but  he  died  the  day  his  class 
was  graduated. 

I  have  referred  to  my  anxiety  about  my 
new  work  in  the  Latin  School,  and  have  said 
that  the  cause  of  it  was  largely  my  imperfect 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    101 

preparation  in  French.  Feeling  my  deficiency 
so  deeply  caused  me  to  enter,  as  vigorously 
as  my  constant  duties  in  my  class-work  would 
permit,  upon  a  thorough  study  of  this  lan- 
guage, including  the  translation  of  French 
into  English,  and  careful  observation  and  imi- 
tation of  the  pronunciation  of  "  Professor  " 
Montrachy,  our  French  teacher,  who  gave  my 
class  two  lessons  a  week.  At  first  the  model 
was  not  a  teacher,  but  a  mere  model,  like  an 
automaton.  No  doubt  his  was  correct  Pari- 
sian French,  but  later,  when  the  place  came 
to  be  occupied  by  Professor  Ferdinand  Bocher, 
the  conditions  were  greatly  changed  and  im- 
proved. He  could  do  far  more  than  serve 
as  a  model,  for  he  was  an  able  teacher.  His 
years  at  the  Latin  School  proved  of  great 
service  to  me;  he  was  one  of  the  very  few 
Frenchmen  I  have  known  who  were  good 
teachers  of  English-speaking  students.  But, 
as  he  told  me,  he  had  spoken  English  from  his 
youth  up,  being  a  Frenchman  born  of  French 
parents  in  New  Orleans.  In  his  youth  he 
spent  much  time  in  France,  and  hence,  know- 
ing the  two  languages  almost  equally  well,  he 
did  not  experience  the  usual  difficulty  of  French 
teachers  in  controlling  his  students.    With  us, 


102  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

too,  he  was  engaged  in  a  school  thoroughly 
governed  by  Dr.  Gardner  and  his  submasters, 
and  this  of  course  greatly  aided  him.  Later, 
he  was  appointed  professor  of  French  at  Har- 
vard University,  where  he  filled  the  chair  hon- 
orably until  his  death,  which  occurred  several 
years  since. 

The  necessity  which  compelled  me  to  turn 
my  attention  to  the  study  of  French  has  pro- 
duced, as  a  result,  an  aquaintance  with  that 
beautiful  language  far  better,  in  my  later 
years,  than  my  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek. 
I  have  had  the  rather  unusual  experience  of 
being  very  fond  of  mathematics  in  early  life, 
and  preferring  it  then  to  any  other  study ; 
later  acquiring  a  great  interest  in  the  clas- 
sical languages,  and  making  them  the  most 
important  part  of  my  teaching;  and  lastly, 
turning  my  attention  to  a  modern  foreign  lan- 
guage more  vigorously,  if  possible,  and  more 
successfully  that  I  had  studied  and  taught  the 
classical  languages. 

I  studied,  and  for  a  time  taught,  French  in 
a  somewhat  arbitrary  method,  applying  to  it 
what  I  had  learned,  especially  in  Latin  gram- 
mar. This  situation  turned  my  attention  to 
the  production  of  a  French  grammar  —  the 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    103 

first  volume  I  ever  published.  To  this  work 
I  gave  every  spare  moment  for  several  years, 
but  the  spare  moments  I  found  all  too  few  in 
my  strenuous  life.  Many  a  night,  after  a  hard 
day's  work  at  teaching,  I  could  be  found  at 
work  on  the  French  grammar,  long  after  the 
small  hours  had  begun.  I  got  all  the  neces- 
sary books  of  reference  from  the  Latin  School 
library,  and  from  Dr.  Gardner's  private  library, 
and  these  I  read  with  care,  from  cover  to 
cover. .  Once  when  I  returned  one  of  the  doc- 
tor's books,  he  asked  me  how  much  of  it  I 
had  read.  I  replied  that  there  was  not  a  word 
in  the  book  from  beginning  to  end  that  had 
escaped  my  notice.  "Well,"  he  replied,  "that 
is  just  like  you;  you  ought  to  be  well  pre- 
pared to  get  out  your  '  Complete  French  Gram- 
mar* after  you  have  read  all  my  French  books 
in  that  way." 

This  being  the  first  book  I  ever  published, 
I  felt  very  solicitous  that  nothing  essential  to 
its  success  should  be  omitted;  at  that  time, 
the  idea  of  reducing  the  study  of  grammar  to 
a  minimum  had  scarcely  been  thought  of  in 
this  country.  Hence  in  this,  my  first  volume, 
the  treatment  was  far  too  minute,  and  included 
much  that  might  be  characterized  as  curious 


104  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  interesting,  rather  than  as  practically  val- 
uable ;  the  American  student  usually  desired 
a  knowledge  of  French  rather  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  possession  of  the  key  to  the  trea- 
sures of  its  literature.  Among  other  curious 
and  redundant  features  of  this  volume  was  one 
which  I  never  have  seen  in  any  other  French 
grammar,  viz.,  an  alphabetical  list  of  many 
pages,  giving  the  corresponding  words  in  the 
three  languages,  Latin,  French,  and  English. 
Of  this  I  have  had  very  little  occasion  to  make 
use  in  my  teaching,  and  I  dare  say  that  other 
French  teachers  of  that  day  had  the  same 
experience.  Another  feature  of  the  book  was 
the  introduction  of  a  different  naming  of  the 
tenses.  With  Dr.  Gardner  and  a  number  of 
others,  I  decided  that  what  is  called  by 
French  grammarians  the  "  past  definite ''  tense 
really  referred  to  indefinite  time  in  the  past ; 
and,  vice  versa,  their  "  past  indefinite  "  seemed 
to  us  to  refer  to  definite  time.  These  changes 
would  seem  to  betray  youth  and  inexperience 
more  than  anything  else,  and,  in  my  own 
teaching,  I  soon  gave  up  endeavoring  to  re- 
form grammatical  terminology.  I  have  often 
wondered  since  that  I  escaped  scathing  criti- 
cism on  this  point,  but  no  such  criticism  has 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    105 

ever  come  to  my  notice.  The  work,  first  pub- 
lished in  Boston  in  1866,  was  pretty  widely 
circulated  for  a  few  years,  running  through 
many  editions,  but  later,  other  and  more  con- 
cise works  have  taken  its  place. 

My  eight  years  in  Boston,  1859-67,  covered 
a  sad  and  critical  time  in  our  country.  The 
question  of  human  slavery  was  approaching 
its  crisis.  After  long  agitation,  begun  in  Bos- 
ton by  William  Lloyd  Garrison  in  his  out- 
spoken paper,  ^^The  Liberator,"  it  was  contin- 
ued and  kept  alive  by  the  platform  eloquence 
of  Wendell  Phillips,  Parker  Pillsbury,  Stephen 
S.  Foster,  and  Abby  Kelly  Foster,  his  wife;  of 
Frederick  Douglass,  Charles  Lenox  Kemond, 
and  Eobert  Purvis — the  three  leading  colored 
men  of  that  time ;  of  James  and  Lucretia  Mott, 
most  worthy  representatives  of  our  Eeligious 
Society  of  Friends ;  of  Charles  C.  Burleigh, 
Thomas  Earl,  and  many  others,  all  of  whom 
I  had  heard  in  public  many  times.  The  crisis 
was  hastened  by  the  John  Brown  raid  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  his  tragic  death  upon  the  gallows. 
The  time  was  near  at  hand  when  the  war  was 
opened  by  the  firing  on  Sumter,  and  the  call- 
ing out  of  seventy  thousand  national  troops 
by  President  Lincoln.   How  vividly  I  recall 


108  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

reading  tlie  morning  paper  on  the  way  to 
schopl  in  the  spring  of  1861,  and  the  thrill 
that  ran  through  my  heart  at  the  news  of  the 
actual  opening  of  the  war  by  the  attack  on 
Fort  Sumter.  From  that  time,  however  they 
may  have  differed  before,  the  people  of  the 
North  were  a  united  people,  and  the  call  for 
troops  was  promptly  answered.  Our  boys  held 
an  improvised  meeting  in  the  general  hall  of 
the  Latin  School ;  this  taking  the  place,  I 
think,  of  all  other  exercises  that  morning. 
They  had  one  very  impressive  speaker  among 
them,  who  was  ever  ready  with  needed  words 
when  the  occasion  called  them  forth,  and 
surely  no  one  of  us,  old  or  young,  had  ever 
seen  a  time  when  the  proper  spoken  word  was 
more  needed.  This  young  and  ready  speaker 
was  Samuel  H.  Virgin,  then,  I  think,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  senior  class.  Virgin  outdid  himself 
on  this  thrilling  occasion,  and  delivered  as 
fiery  an  address  as  any  of  those  so  often  heard 
in  those  days  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  en- 
treating that  no  voice  give  an  uncertain  sound, 
but  that  all  be  ready  at  once  to  leave  school 
and  start  for  the  war  when  called  out  by  Pre- 
sident Lincoln  to  defend  the  honor  of  the 
national  flag. 


BOSTON  PUBLIC   LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    107 

Since  then,  through  all  of  these  interven- 
ing years,  I  had  lost  sight  of  Virgin.  A  few 
months  ago,  or  forty-four  years  after,  a  letter 
of  mine  on  the  study  of  phonography  was  seen 
by  him  in  the  "  New  York  Tribune."  As  this 
letter  gave  my  New  York  address,  he  lost  no 
time  in  calling  upon  me,  and  talking  over  these 
experiences  of  the  past.  I  found  that  he  had 
been  a  well-known  clergyman  in  this  city  for 
many  years,  and  had  lived  a  highly  honorable 
and  useful  life.  Our  pleasure  at  meeting  after 
this  long  interval  can  be  more  readily  imagined 
than  described. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  stirring  address 
of  Virgin  that  William  Everett,  son  of  Edward 
Everett  and  a  graduate  a  few  years  before  of 
the  Latin  School,  addressed  our  boys  in  a  sim- 
ilar strain.  Scholarship  during  those  early 
months  of  girding  themselves  for  the  national 
combat  seemed  a  matter  of  quite  secondary  im- 
portance, and  Dr.  Gardner  himself  was  as  en- 
thusiastic as  any  of  his  two  hundred  and  fifty 
boys.  Evening  meetings  were  called  in  the 
public  halls  of  Boston,  and  the  most  eloquent 
of  American  orators,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  his 
warm  friend  and  co-worker,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  both  of  whom  had  been  threatened, 


108  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

a  few  months  before,  with  lynch  law,  these  and 
other  great  leaders  were  now  gladly  listened 
to  by  the  almost  infuriated  people  of  Boston. 
I  recall  the  first  time  that  Phillips  spoke  after 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  how  enthusiasti- 
cally all  his  words  were  received,  and  how  the 
audience,  wild  with  excitement,  rose  en  masse 
and  threw  their  hats  as  high  as  they  could, 
regardless  of  their  possible  loss  in  coming 
down.  One  of  his  ringing  sentences,  that 
sounded  strangely  from  one  who  had  always 
before  recommended  peaceful  measures,  fairly 
startled  me  —  his  peroration  was,  "  This  ques- 
tion will  never  be  rightly  settled  until  every 
Southern  slaveholder  is  beneath  the  sod!" 
That  was  no  time  for  what  Voltaire  once 
called  "the  summer  soldier  and  the  sunshine 
patriot "  to  secure  patient  listeners. 

When  I  began  these  memoirs  I  felt  that  I 
should  give  an  account  of  my  life  only  as  con- 
nected with  the  profession  of  teaching ;  but  I 
see  that  I  can  do  this  better  by  dwelling  more 
or  less  upon  my  varied  experiences  and  upon 
what  they  have  taught  me,  than  if  I  confined 
myself  too  closely  to  my  personal  experiences 
in  the  science  and  art  of  teaching.  Let  me 
say  now,  therefore,  that  one  great  lesson  which 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1869-67    109 

I  would  leave  behind  me  is  the  importance 
of  laying  a  thorough  foundation,  without  too 
great  anxiety  to  gain  time  by  short  and  irregu- 
lar courses,  and  also  the  importance  of  having 
one  definite  occupation  in  life.  Here  I  have 
laid  myself  open  to  the  charge  of  being  "  a 
man  of  remorseless  mental  activity,"  as  a  very 
good  friend  has  recently  called  me.  Change 
for  the  sake  of  change  is  always  objection- 
able, but  may  properly  be  made  at  times  for  a 
laudable  purpose.  I  have  never,  in  a  long  life, 
resigned  a  position  except  when  invited  to  a 
more  important  work.  I  tell  young  men  who 
go  out  to  seek  their  fortunes  never  to  try  for 
a  higher  position  until  they  can  fill  well  the 
position  at  present  occupied.  That  they  have 
done  this,  and  made  their  services  indispensa- 
ble where  they  are,  is  the  best  possible  recom- 
mendation for  the  next  higher  place.  No  one 
in  seeking  a  teacher  (of  course  I  speak  of  my 
own  profession)  seeks  among  the  unoccupied 
the  man  or  the  woman  needed,  but  among 
those  already  filling  well  their  present  posi- 
tions. Few  lessons  in  securing  success  in  life 
will  be  found  of  greater  value  than  this. 

When  my  "  Complete  French  Grammar  "  was 
fairly  before  the  public,  I  turned  my  attention 


110  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

to  the  preparation  of  my  second  work,  to  be 
called  an  "  Introductory  French  Eeader."  For 
this  I  made  a  careful  examination  of  modern 
French  literature,  and  selected  such  passages 
as  would  give  the  students,  by  brief  study,  a 
specimen  of  the  style  of  the  different  writers ; 
upon  these  I  prepared  a  full  body  of  explana- 
tory notes,  clearing  up  difficult  constructions, 
and  referring  the  student  very  often  to  those 
paragraphs  in  my  grammar  which  these  pas- 
sages would  illustrate.  I  also  prepared  a  com- 
plete vocabulary  of  all  the  words  and  phrases 
used  in  this  reader.  This  vocabulary  was 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  full  dictionary 
for  any  reader  of  the  volume ;  besides  the  ex- 
planations of  the  words  and  phrases,  I  gave 
the  Latin  derivations  in  the  case  of  words  de- 
rived from  that  language.  This  became  a  great 
aid  to  my  students  in  the  Latin  School,  and 
the  reader  was  very  generally  used  for  some 
years  by  students  studying  at  the  same  time 
Latin  and  French.  I  am  sure  that  no  book  I 
ever  published  required  such  persistent  and 
patient  labor  as  did  this  vocabulary  of  my 
"  Introductory  French  Reader."  To  prepare 
it  and  see  it  safely  through  the  press  occupied 
every  moment  of  time  that  I  could  spare  from 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:  1859-67    111 

my  class-work,  including  the  greater  part  o£ 
the  vacations,  for  fully  three  years. 

Thus  my  determination  to  correct  my  de- 
ficiencies in  Trench  resulted,  within  five  or 
six  years,  in  my  publishing  those  first  two 
volumes  that  I  had  given  to  the  public,  and 
cultivated  my  abihty  to  remove  serious  ob- 
stacles by  persistent  labor.  In  this  work  I 
had  schooled  myself  to  work  in  my  study  at 
home,  with  a  family  of  growing  children 
around  me,  all  separately  or  together  interested 
in  their  lessons  or  their  amusements.  I  was  no 
more  disturbed  by  them  than  I  should  have 
been  had  I  shut  myself  up,  away  from  the 
cheerful  influences  of  my  family,  and  burned 
my  midnight  oil  in  a  separate  "  den  "  of  my 
own.  I  can  now  say,  long  after  that  little 
circle  has  been  broken  by  death  and  the  ex- 
periences of  adult  life,  that  I  have  always  re- 
joiced thus  to  have  mingled  with  them  while 
it  was  possible  to  do  so. 

One  pecuUar  habit  of  Dr.  Gardner  in  his 
teaching  showed  how  much  he  depended  upon 
being  natural,  and  being  himself.  He  always 
had  great  success  in  training  his  students  in 
elocution,  a  subject  which  they  mastered  well 
in  the  school,  and  in  which  they  generally  took 


112  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

good  positions  or  prizes  in  their  courses  at 
Harvard  or  elsewhere.  I  once  said  to  him, 
"How  is  it  that  you,  who  are  no  public 
speaker  yourself,  make  such  good  speakers 
of  your  Latin  School  boys?"  "Oh,"  he  re- 
plied, in  his  brusque  and  ofE-hand  manner, 
*^  there  is  nothing  more  simple  than  that.  I 
never  teach  them  gestures  or  any  of  the  para- 
phernalia of  the  teachers  of  elocution.  I  tell 
them  to  study  their  speeches  well,  to  be  sure 
not  to  fail  in  a  single  word  in  their  commit- 
tal, to  understand  perfectly  what  the  authors 
mean,  and  to  make  that  knowledge  fully  their 
own ;  then  I  put  them  on  their  pins  and  tell 
them  to  '  strike  out,'  and  they  simply  cannot 
fail  to  do  well."  These  are  the  exact  words 
of  the  doctor,  and  they  are  really  a  key  to 
much  of  his  fine  success  as  a  teacher.  He 
insisted  on  perfect  committal,  and  no  prompt- 
ing was  ever  allowed. 

As  a  governor,  although  kind  and  consider- 
ate and  never  giving  way  to  anger  or  excite- 
ment with  unruly  boys,  he  was  resolute  and 
determined;  and  he  used  at  times,  for  one 
species  of  offense  only — truancy  —  a  royal 
remedy,  which  I  never  knew  to  fail.  I  remem- 
ber but  four  or  five  cases  of  truancy  in  that 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN  SCHOOL:   1859-67    113 

large  school,  and  each  case  was  thus  treated : 
the  teachers  of  the  five  rooms,  with  all  their 
classes,  were  called  together  in  the  large  upper 
room  where  the  doctor's  classes  were  regularly 
held.  When  all  were  seated,  the  culprit  was 
brought  in.  Then  the  doctor,  taking  a  heavy- 
ruler  in  hand,  stepped  out  and  took  the  hand 
of  the  culprit,  thus  addressing  him :  "  You 
have  been  guilty  of  truancy.  I  do  not  use  this 
ruler  to  reform  you ;  I  know  that  it  cannot  do 
that ;  but  only  to  make  you  hold  still  while 
other  influences  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
you.  Hold  out  your  hand."  He  would  then 
inflict  several  severe  blows  on  the  palm  of  the 
hand.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  add 
that  I  was  never  in  the  least  converted  by  the 
doctor  to  this  method  of  using  force,  being 
always  satisfied  that  kindness,  and  considera- 
tion for  the  feelings  of  the  student  and  his 
family,  worked  in  all  possible  cases  a  reform 
more  lasting  and  effectual. 

But  with  all  his  brusqueness  and  abrupt- 
ness of  manner,  he  was  a  nobleman  in  that  he 
was  a  most  noble,  truly  kind,  and  generous 
man.  I  often  wondered  that  he  remained  all 
his  life  a  bachelor,  and  I  feared  that  some 
domestic  tragedy  had  darkened  his  life.  After 


114  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

I  knew  him,  he  had  a  favorite  niece  who  kept 
house  for  him,  and  a  faithful  old  colored 
woman  who  was  cook  and  general  housemaid. 
These  constituted  his  entire  household.  He 
went  out  very  Httle,  if  at  all,  into  general  so- 
ciety, and  rarely  attended  even  an  educational 
meeting.  The  reason  for  this  was  his  thorough 
belief  that  teachers  were  born,  not  made. 
He  would  change  the  Latin  maxim,  ''poeta 
nascitur  non  fit/'  into  ''magister  nascitur 
non  JitJ'  In  consequence  of  this  he  had  no 
patience  with  the  normal  schools  then  spring- 
ing up  everywhere  in  New  England,  and  said 
that  they  wanted  to  make  all  the  teachers 
into  smooth  round  marbles,  all  alike  and  all 
equally  destitute  of  character  and  originality. 
Of  one  of  these  who  had  been  a  teacher  in 
a  neighboring  town,  and  who  aspired  to  be 
elected  to  the  state  superintendency  for  Mas- 
sachusetts, he  said  that  in  the  small  town 
where  he  Hved  and  taught  he  "  did  well 
enough,  but  he  would  be  very  thin  when 
spread  out  over  the  whole  State."  On  account 
of  this  dependence  wholly  upon  native  inborn 
talent,  and  this  disposition  to  condemn  special 
professional  training  for  our  work.  Dr.  Gard- 
ner had  several  strong  enemies  in  the  school 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LATIN   SCHOOL:  1859-67    115 

board,  and  year  after  year,  when  the  annual 
election  came,  these  strove  to  unseat  him.  But 
his  genius  for  teaching,  his  absolute  devotion 
to  the  work  which  seemed  his  whole  life,  his 
powerful  personality  and  the  good  results  he 
secured  for  his  classes  in  the  colleges  which 
they  entered,  —  Harvard  especially,  —  kept 
down  this  opposition,  and  after  the  stormy 
annual  meetings  of  the  board  he  came  out 
each  year  victorious.  The  exact  length  of  his 
rule  after  the  death  of  his  able  predecessor. 
Master  Dixwell,  I  do  not  now  remember.  It 
was  my  admiration  for,  and  sympathy  with, 
the  man  that  led  us  to  call  our  only  son  by 
his  name. 

I  will  not  anticipate  here  further  than  to 
add  that  some  years  after  my  son's  death  at 
the  age  of  nine,  and  after  Dr.  Gardner  had 
crossed  the  Hudson  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  visiting  us  in  our  Swarthmore  home,  I 
heard  that  that  iron  frame  of  his  had  given 
way  at  last,  that  he  was  very  ill,  and  that  he 
had  expressed  to  his  nurse  a  desire  to  see  me, 
his  devoted  submaster.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  sad  and  feeble  tone  in  which  he  said,  as  I 
quietly  entered  the  sick-room  in  his  unpre- 
tending home  in  West  Cedar  Street :    "  Mr. 


116  LIFE  OF  £  TEACHER 

Magill,  I  have  been  hoping  to  receive  you 
here  in  my  home  for  some  time  past,  but  this 
is  not  the  reception  that  I  had  hoped  to  give 
you."  He  was  so  feeble  that  his  physician  for- 
bade a  long  stay ;  and  I  am  sure  that  I  never 
took  a  sadder  farewell  of  any  one,  out  of  my 
own  immediate  family,  than  I  did  that  day 
of  Dr.  Gardner.  I  returned  promptly  to  my 
duties  at  Swarthmore,  for  which  he  had  done 
so  much  to  give  me  a  thorough  preparation, 
and  heard,  a  few  days  after,  that  he  had  passed 
gently  and  peacefully  away.  With  him  I  lost 
one  of  the  best  friends  of  my  earlier  years, 
and  one  who  vaUantly  did  his  part,  often  amid 
obloquy  and  reproach,  to  secure  to  the  gen- 
eration to  follow  him  the  most  thorough,  pro- 
found, and  accurate  scholarship.  We  differed 
in  views  upon  many  things,  but  we  agreed  to 
differ;  and,  each  confiding  wholly  in  the  oth- 
er's good  intentions,  we  passed  together  eight 
of  the  most  profitable  years  of  my  life. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD 
1867-1868 

IT  was  early  in  the  spring  of  1867  that  I  had 
an  entirely  unexpected  visit  at  our  home 
in  Jamaica  Plain,  from  Edward  Parrish,  of 
Philadelphia,  who  informed  me  of  his  great 
interest  in  a  college  to  be  established  by  cer- 
tain members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and 
then  in  process  of  construction.  Of  this  col- 
lege he  had  been  chosen,  a  few  years  earlier, 
by  the  board  of  managers,  the  first  president. 
He  informed  me  that  as  our  Friends  had  had 
no  college  previous  to  this,  it  must  be,  for  a 
time  at  least,  rather  a  preparatory  school  than 
a  college.  Of  this  preparatory  school,  his 
friend  and  mine,  Rachel  T.  Jackson,  —  wife 
of  the  well-known  minister,  John  Jackson,  — 
had  suggested  to  him  that  he  obtain  my  aid 
as  principal. 

This  was  a  wholly  unexpected  opening,  and 
at  first  I  scarcely  knew  what  to  think  of  it. 


118  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

After  a  night's  reflection,  I  saw  in  this  an  im- 
portant opportunity  to  do  a  good  work  for  our 
Religious  Society,  which  was  now  each  year 
becoming  more  in  need  of  such  a  school ;  for 
at  that  time  there  were  very  few  young  men 
in  our  Society  who  had  had  the  educational 
advantages  which  I  had  enjoyed  since  I  left 
Benjamin  Hallowell's  school  to  prepare  for 
Yale.  I  felt  that,  since  that  time,  my  life  had 
been  so  ordered  as  to  give  me  the  best  fitting 
possible  for  a  place  among  my  own  people 
such  as  that  to  which  I  was  now  called.  After 
the  night's  rest  and  prayerful  reflection,  I 
answered  Edward  Parrish  that  I  would  accept 
the  position  oiBPered. 

I  promptly  tendered  my  resignation  to  the 
board  of  the  Latin  School,  to  take  effect  at 
the  coming  summer  vacation.  As  the  college 
would  not  open  until  the  autumn  of  1869,  I 
felt  that  I  must  spend  the  intervening  two 
years  in  study  abroad,  and  in  making  in  Paris 
the  selections  needed  for  my  third  volume, 
already  well  under  way,  to  be  called  "French 
Prose  and  Poetry."  Thus  prepared,  I  should 
enter  upon  my  work  at  the  new  college  with 
twenty-eight  years'  experience  in  teaching, 
study,  and   travel.    I   hoped  that   my  later 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:   1867-68    119 

wide  and  varied  experience  would  atone  for 
my  premature  beginning  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen. 

Accordingly,  with  my  wife  and  eldest 
daughter,  Helen,  and  with  two  friends,  Ann 
Eliza  Cooke,  a  teacher  in  the  Philadelphia 
Friends'  School,  and  Arnold  B.  Chace,  a  pri- 
vate student  of  mine  in  Providence,  I  went 
abroad  at  the  end  of  the  summer  of  1869, 
placing  our  four  other  children  with  relatives, 
where  we  felt  that  they  would  be  under  kind 
and  watchful  care.  This  was  our  first  experi- 
ence on  the  sea.  We  set  sail  from  New  York 
in  the  Cella,  a  wee  steamer,  with  some  dozen 
first-class  passengers  and  a  much  larger  num- 
ber in  the  steerage.  We  took  care  to  be 
well  provided  with  books  to  read  and  study, 
and,  being  on  our  way  to  France  where  we 
planned  to  spend  the  winter,  we  did  what  we 
could  to  familiarize  ourselves  still  more  with 
the  French  language.  Without  intercourse 
with  those  who  spoke  French  the  progress 
made  in  this  was  necessarily  slow  and  painful, 
though  in  the  fifteen  days  taken  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  at  that  time  the  progress  was  per- 
haps perceptible. 

Our  daughter  of  fourteen  gained  faster  than 


120  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

her  mother  and  father,  which  is  natural,  as  at 
that  age  a  new  language  is  acquired  far  more 
readily  than  later  in  life.  We  missed  this 
daughter  the  first  night  after  we  were  fairly 
out  at  sea.  She  left  us  while  we  were  reading 
French,  and  in  a  few  minutes,  as  she  did  not 
return  as  we  expected,  we  went  out  on  the 
upper  deck,  little  supposing,  however,  that 
she  would  venture  up  there  alone.  The  night 
was  fine,  such  a  night  as  we  had  rarely  seen 
on  land.   As  Whittier  says :  — 

*'  The  stars  had  all  come  out,  the  sky  had  not  a  stain  of  crim- 
son on. 

And  in  its  cold  fixed  purity,  the  pale  and  quiet  moonlight 
shone." 

In  a  few  moments  we  saw  the  little  girl  perched 
on  the  side  of  the  steamer,  looking  out  over 
the  rail  into  the  sparkhng  waters.  As  soon 
as  she  saw  us  she  cried  out,  "Oh,  come  here, 
mamma  and  papa,  and  see  the  ship  running 
through  the  moonlight ! "  Our  reHef  was  so 
great  that  we  did  not  even  scold  her,  but  her 
mother  warned  her  not  to  go  out  of  her  sight 
again  while  we  were  at  sea.  She  seemed  en- 
tirely free  from  fear,  though  a  sudden  lurch 
of  the  vessel  might  easily  have  made  her  slip 
under  the  rail,  which  was  not  so  well  pro- 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:   1867-68    121 

tected  with  strong  netting  as  in  the  steamers 
of  more  modern  date. 

That,  my  first  sea  voyage,  is  memorable  to 
me  for  many  things,  but  nothing  is  more  pro- 
minent in  my  mind  than  my  feehng  of  reKef, 
as  we  lay  out  on  the  deck  on  our  rugs  through 
those  long  early  autumn  days  and  starlit  and 
moonlit  nights,  when  I  remembered  that  I  was 
beginning  my  first  real  vacation,  released  from 
the  cares  of  schoolrooms  and  the  preparation 
for  them.  I  now  had  before  me  two  full  years 
of  comparative  freedom  before  beginning  my 
work  in  Swarthmore  College. 

As  our  little  steamer  was  to  touch  at  Brest 
on  the  way  to  London,  we  were  quite  a  dis- 
tance to  the  south  of  the  ordinary  line  of 
ocean  travel,  and  for  that  reason  we  saw  few 
passing  sails.  At  one  time  seven  whole  days 
and  nights  were  passed  without  a  sail  in  sight. 
This  was  quite  different  from  my  idea  of  the 
ocean,  as  I  had  supposed  that  in  these  days 
of  commerce  the  ocean  was  far  from  being 
a  lonely  place,  and  that  we  should  see  the 
"white  wings  of  commerce  dotting  every  sea." 
At  last,  on  a  Sabbath  morning  —  our  third 
Sabbath  since  we  sailed  from  New  York  — 
we  came  into  the  harbor  of  Brest,  after  a 


122  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

stormy  night  on  the  proverbially  rough  Bay 
of  Biscay. 

Although  we  had  intended  to  remain  on 
board  and  go  on  to  London,  we  suddenly  con- 
eluded  to  join  a  few  others  who  were  going 
ashore  at  Brest,  and,  by  thus  shortening  our 
route  to  Paris,  to  visit  the  great  Exposition  of 
1867  —  one  of  the  first  of  the  great  World's 
Expositions,  now  become  so  common  —  in 
time  to  see  it  at  least  a  few  days  before  its 
close.  Brest  was  the  first  fortified  town  we 
had  ever  seen,  and  as  we  wound  up  the  steep 
hillside  between  high  walls,  we  could  easily 
see  how  a  small  body  of  defenders  could  pre- 
vent the  approach  of  an  invading  army.  I 
think  that  green  fields  never  impressed  me 
more  than  the  charming  shaded  meadows 
which  we  saw  on  the  islands  in  the  harbor; 
refreshing,  indeed,  they  were  after  our  fifteen 
days  and  nights  upon  the  sea.  That  night,  at 
the  Hotel  Boule  d'Or,  our  beds  were  at  last 
steady ;  but,  after  those  fifteen  nights  of  rock- 
ing, they  seemed  to  rock  even  more  than  our 
berths  had  done  upon  the  sea. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  of 
our  arrival  France  was  under  the  government 
of  Louis  Napoleon,  and  we  had  early  evidence 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD;  1867-68    123 

of  the  strong  hand  with  which  the  state  and 
city  were  governed, — the  hand  that  had  seized 
the  reins  of  government  by  the  memorable 
coup  d'etat  of  1852. 

One  of  the  first  indications  that  struck  us 
was  the  great  number  of  officers  in  uniform 
in  the  streets;  we  seemed  never  to  be  out 
of  sight  of  one  or  more.  Whenever  a  group, 
however  small,  stopped  in  the  street  (which 
was  forbidden)  the  cry  was  promptly  heard, 
"  En  avant,  ces  messieurs,  en  avant  I "  We 
noticed  this  on  the  night  of  our  arrival,  and 
indeed  throughout  our  stay  in  Paris.  So  far 
was  it  from  being  any  proof  of  strength  in 
the  government,  it  was  really  a  sign  of  fear 
and  weakness.  Throughout  our  stay  that  win- 
ter the  iron  hand  of  the  law  was  in  evidence 
in  other  ways.  If  a  crowd  collected  at  a  meet- 
ing for  any  purpose,  the  slightest  exhibition 
of  rough  conduct  was  followed  by  arrest  by 
an  armed  officer. 

I  may  mention  another  evidence  of  the 
personal  power  of  Napoleon  III.  During  the 
winter  we  had  failed  to  gain  admittance  to 
several  places  of  interest,  notably  to  the  beau- 
tiful chateau  of  St.  Cloud,  soon  to  be  destroyed 
in  the  siege  of  Paris.   I  told  my  family  that  I 


124  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

had  a  mind  to  write  to  the  Emperor  and  ask 
his  aid.  They  all  laughed  at  the  idea,  but  I 
wrote  hnd  mailed  the  letter.  Two  days  later 
I  was  called  to  the  door  of  the  hotel,  where  I 
found  a  brilliantly  accoutred  oflficer,  who  cour- 
teously handed  me  a  letter  which  he  had  been 
directed  to  give  into  my  hands.  It  was  from 
the  Emperor,  and  I  found  it  an  infallible 
"Open,  Sesame"  during  all  of  our  stay  in 
Paris. 

We  arrived  in  the  capital  as  we  expected, 
just  in  time  to  see  the  great  exhibition  on  the 
Champ  de  Mars  for  two  or  three  days  before 
its  close.  To  us  it  was  a  wonder  indeed.  Al- 
though the  speech  of  all  around  us  was  the 
language  which  I  had  been  teaching  for  the 
past  eight  years  in  Boston,  and  although  I  had 
published  a  French  grammar  and  a  French 
reader,  yet  so  far  from  practical  had  been  my 
instruction  (all  grammar  and  practically  no 
language)  that  for  a  time  I  could  not  under- 
stand a  single  sentence  addressed  to  me ;  much 
less  could  I  use  my  tongue  to  make  an  unpre- 
meditated reply.  On  our  ride  by  rail  from 
Brest  to  Paris,  it  struck  me  as  strange  that 
the  sounds  made  by  every  animal  that  we  saw 
on  the  road  —  the  lowing  of  cows,  the  bleat- 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:   1867-68    125 

ing  of  sheep,  the  grunting  of  hogs,  the  bark- 
ing of  dogs,  the  mewing  of  eats,  the  cackle  of 
hens,  the  crowing  of  cocks,  and  even  the  cry- 
ing of  a  child  —  that  while  all  these  noises 
and  many  more  were  the  same  as  we  had  heard 
at  home,  the  moment  a  spoken  word  was  ut- 
tered by  man,  woman,  or  child  it  was  wholly 
unintelligible  to  me.  It  would  almost  seem  to 
indicate  some  special  cause  for  this  confusion 
in  the  spoken  word  of  the  human  race,  Hke 
that  of  which  we  have  an  account  in  the  legend 
of  the  tower  of  Babel. 

Lest  it  be  considered  strange  that  I,  a 
teacher  of  French,  and  the  author  of  a  French 
grammar  and  reader,  should  have  been  so  be- 
wildered when  I  first  heard  the  language  spoken 
by  all  around  me,  I  will  quote  a  few  words 
from  one  who  was  a  far  better  authority  on 
language  than  I  —  James  Eussell  Lowell.  On 
his  first  visit  to  Paris,  Lowell  thus  soliloquized 
in  his  hotel  on  the  morning  after  his  arrival, 
^'  Here  am  I,  in  Paris,  after  years  of  teaching 
French  in  Harvard,  and  I  cannot  use  French 
enough  this  morning  to  call  a  servant  and  ask 
him  to  black  my  boots." 

As  one  of  our  leading  motives  was  to  be- 
come familiar  with  the  French  language,  we 


126  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

avoided  English-speaking  families,  and  took 
up  our  quarters  for  the  winter  in  a  small  pri- 
vate family  hotel,  then  called  Hotel  de  la 
Haute  Vienne.  Here  we  were  the  only  regu- 
lar boarders,  and  the  family  of  four — father, 
mother,  son,  and  daughter  —  spoke  no  lan- 
guage but  French.  Of  course  French  was  the 
language  spoken  at  table.  We  sometimes 
spoke  English  among  ourselves,  but  when  we 
did  so  our  hosts,  who  had  knowledge  of  only  a 
few  English  words,  would  say  to  us,  "  We  can 
never  understand  you  English  people,  because 
you  speak  so  fast  and  run  your  words  so  closely 
together."  We  certainly  felt  the  same  about 
their  French,  and  the  fact  is,  it  is  the  same 
when  one  hears  any  unfamiliar  language 
spoken.  Walking  on  the  Boulevard  des  Ital- 
iens  one  day,  I  saw  in  a  window  a  small  book 
which  attracted  my  attention.  The  words  and 
phrases  in  the  book  were  arranged  in  three 
columns;  the  first  was  in  English,  the  second 
in  French,  and  the  third  in  what  seemed  a 
strange  language  to  me.  After  a  little  exam- 
ination, I  found  that  the  third  column  was  an 
attempt  to  show  French  children  how  to  pro- 
nounce English.  It  was  so  curious  that  I  ought 
to  have  secured  it^  as  I  might  have  done  for  a 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:  1867-68    127 

franc  or  two,  but  I  omitted  to  do  so,  which  I 
often  afterwards  regretted. 

As  our  eldest  daughter  could  learn  the  new 
language  much  faster  than  her  parents,  we 
placed  her  for  the  winter  in  an  excellent  pen- 
sion, a  short  distance  outside  the  city  walls, 
at  Neuilly-sur-Seine.  We  often  met  her  on 
Saturday  evenings,  and  kept  her  with  us  at 
our  hotel  until  Monday  morning.  From  week 
to  week  her  progress  in  French  astonished 
us.  I  often  recall  my  pleasant  walks  with  her 
between  her  school  and  the  hotel.  As  she 
chattered  away  like  a  magpie,  I  could  but  envy 
our  little  girl  the  fluency  of  her  speech,  and 
I  wished  that  I  could  have  had  her  opportuni- 
ties in  my  early  life.  Not  having  had  them, 
I  felt  I  must  make  up  by  hard  study  what 
seemed  to  come  so  easily  to  her,  for  I  learned 
early  the  lesson  that  it  is  a  very  poor  expen- 
diture of  valuable  time  to  dwell  upon  past 
shortcomings  or  upon  vain  dreams  of  what 
might  have  been. 

I  soon  located  myself  in  one  of  the  many 
libraries,  which  were  free  and  open  to  all  who 
desired  to  use  them.  All  the  books  I  could 
wish  were  suppUed  me  on  request,  and  I  found 
that  my  opportunities  for  private  reading  and 


128  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

study,  and  for  making  the  selections  for  my 
third  volume,  "French  Prose  and  Poetry," 
were  unsurpassed.  My  wife  and  her  friend 
occupied  much  time  in  shopping  and  in  at- 
tending lectures  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  Col- 
lege de  France.  My  young  friend,  as  well  as 
myself,  when  not  occupied  with  study,  also 
attended  the  lectures  ;  after  a  time,  we  gener- 
ally spent  the  days  in  the  lecture-room  and  the 
evenings  in  the  libraries.  For  the  first  few 
weeks  I  hstened  to  three,  four,  or  five  lectures 
per  day,  of  an  hour  each,  and  yet  covdd  follow 
very  little  of  the  thought ;  but  after  a  month 
they  began  to  clear  and  my  progress  then  in 
following  them  was  rapid.  I  found  certain 
speakers  more  distinct  than  others,  and  I  al- 
ways listened  with  especial  pleasure  and  profit 
to  Edouard  Laboulaye.  He  was  professor 
of  comparative  legislation  in  the  College  de 
France,  and  his  latest  work,  "  The  United 
States  and  France,"  had  made  his  name  dear 
to  every  lover  of  liberty  in  our  country. 
About  this  time  he  was  dismissed  through 
the  influence  of  Napoleon,  who  could  not 
endure  so  popular  a  lover  of  free  institutions. 
The  students  took  his  part,  and  only  the 
ever-present   iron   hand  of   Napoleon  "The 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:  1867-68    129 

Little/'  as  Victor  Hugo  calls  him,  restrained 
them.  But  the  day  of  reckoning  was  fast 
approaching.  In  a  few  years  Sedan  ended 
the  Emperor's  aspirations,  as  well  as  those 
of  his  ambitious  empress,  who  is  said  to  have 
urged  him  on  to  his  fate.  It  was  then  custom- 
ary for  the  Emperor  and  Empress  to  appear 
on  the  balcony  of  the  Tuileries  palace  on 
New  Year's  morning.  This  appearance  we 
witnessed  that  winter,  and  it  was  the  next  to 
their  last.  Even  within  a  few  months  the  sky 
of  the  usurping  Emperor  was  overclouded, 
and  his  downfall  followed  soon  after. 

A  few  more  winters  in  Paris  like  that  of 
1867-68  would  have  made  the  French  lan- 
guage, with  my  previous  study  of  it  in  Boston, 
nearly  as  familiar  as  my  mother  tongue.  It 
was  my  pleasure  and  good  fortune  to  make  the 
p  acquaintance  of  M.  BeschereUe,  the  author 
of  that  scholarly  work,  the  "  Dictionnaire  Na- 
tional de  la  Langue  Frangaise."  When  he  had 
explained  to  me  his  method  in  preparing  this 
great  work,  and  had  shown  me  the  hundreds 
of  small  drawers  arranged  on  all  sides  of  his 
large  study,  in  which  he  had  accumulated  for 
many  years  the  illustrative  sentences  used  in 
his  volumes,  I  was  more  thoroughly  impressed 


130  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

with  the  necessity  of  close  study,  profound  re- 
search, and  wide  scholarship  as  a  preparation 
for  such  literary  labor,  than  I  could  have  been 
in  any  other  way.  I  visited  him  several  times, 
and  before  I  bade  him  farewell  for  the  last 
time,  he  promised  to  write  me  an  introduction 
to  my  French  Grammar,  then  coming  into 
pretty  general  use.  That  excellent  preface, 
as  he  wrote  it,  I  published  in  the  subsequent 
editions  of  the  work. 

A  mistake  which  this  great  man  made  — 
probably  attributable  to  age  and  failing 
strength  —  came  very  near  costing  me  rather 
dear.  His  preface  being  unfinished  when  I 
left  Paris  in  the  spring  for  Italy,  he  agreed 
to  forward  it  to  me  in  America  by  mail. 
Later,  when  this  reached  me  at  our  post-office 
in  my  native  place  in  Pennsylvania,  I  found, 
to  my  astonishment,  that  his  written  matter, 
had  been  placed  between  the  leaves  of  my  book, 
subjecting  the  whole  to  letter  postage,  and 
this,  too,  was  doubled,  because  not  prepaid. 
The  whole  amount  charged  was  nearly  fifty 
dollars.  I  declined  to  take  it  from  the  post- 
office  until  I  heard  from  friends  connected 
with  the  post-office  department  in  Washing- 
ton, who  succeeded  in  having   the  mistake 


TRAVEL  AND   STUDY  ABROAD:   1867-68    131 

corrected,  reducing  the  charge  to  some  three 
or  four  dollars.  M.  Bescherelle  died  soon 
after,  and  never  heard  of  his  mistake. 

In  the  spring  of  1868  we  proposed  to  visit 
southern  France  and  Italy.  We  planned  to 
leave  our  good  friends  of  the  Hotel  de  la 
Haute  Vienne  on  the  thirteenth  of  April ;  but 
our  landlord  assured  us  that  he  could  not  con- 
sent to  our  leaving  his  house  on  the  thirteenth  ; 
he  said  we  might  go  on  the  twelfth  or  the  four- 
teenth, but  not  on  the  thirteenth.  He  added 
that  they  had  no  room  in  their  house  numbered 
thirteen,  for  they  found  their  guests  unwilling 
to  risk  that  unlucky  number.  Without  shar- 
ing in  their  superstition,  we  willingly  complied 
with  their  entreaties  and  set  out  on  the  four- 
teenth. We  travelled  slowly  through  France, 
taking  about  a  week  to  reach  Marseilles,  and 
from  there  we  took  a  coastwise  steamer  to 
Naples,  whence  we  saw  the  great  crater  of 
Vesuvius,  which  was  pouring  forth  smoke  and 
flame ;  later,  when  we  visited  it,  the  stream  of 
lava  was  running  down  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain into  the  dark  valley  between  the  higher 
and  lower  peaks.  After  a  midnight  visit  to 
this  mountain,  preceded  by  a  careful  visit  on 
the  previous  day  to  the  wonderful  buried  city 


132  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

of  Pompeii  near  its  base,  as  the  season  was 
advancing  we  set  out  for  Eome.  On  reaching 
there  we  took  rooms  on  the  Piazza  di  Spagna, 
which  was  a  favorite  place  for  foreigners.  The 
weather  was  already  very  warm,  and  we  feared 
that  we  must  hasten  northward  to  escape  the 
Eoman  fever.  But  the  natives  assured  us  that 
the  fever  was  only  to  be  feared  in  the  autumn, 
after  the  leaves  on  the  Campagna  and  else- 
where began  to  fall.  So  after  a  brief  sojourn 
there  to  see  the  Vatican,  St.  Peter's,  and  a 
few  of  the  other  leading  churches  and  picture 
galleries,  my  young  friend,  Arnold  B.  Chace, 
and  myself  set  out  on  a  tour  on  foot  through 
the  Papal  States,  leaving  the  ladies  of  our 
company  to  spend  the  time  in  reading  and  in 
seeing  the  various  sights  of  Rome  during  our 
absence. 

The  great  interest  of  a  walking  tour  con- 
sisted largely  in  the  opportunity  given  to  see 
places  and  people  quite  out  of  the  way  of 
ordinary  travelers.  On  account  of  the  state 
of  society  in  those  later  days  of  Pope  Pius 
IX,  when  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope 
was  rapidly  approaching  its  downfall,  the 
mountains  around  were  infested  with  ban- 
ditti, some  of  whom  we  narrowly  escaped  en- 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:  1867-68    133 

countering.  During  one  night  that  I  clearly 
recall  a  horseman  was  on  guard  under  the 
"windows  of  our  little  hotel,  and  an  attack  on 
a  small  town  in  a  neighboring  district  was 
currently  reported  the  following  day.  Occa- 
sionally we  hired  mules  to  ride  for  a  day, 
when  too  weary  to  proceed  on  foot.  There  was 
one  occasion  when  we  met  a  man  working  in 
a  field,  and  he  asked  us  where  we  came  from ; 
and  when  told  that  we  came  from  over  the 
sea,  in  America,  he  looked  at  us  as  a  country- 
man might  be  supposed  to  gaze  upon  one 
just  descended  from  the  moon,  on  a  brief 
visit  to  this  terrestrial  sphere. 

During  this  tour  afoot  it  was  a  strange 
experience  to  feel  that  we  were  the  foreigners, 
and  from  our  general  unkempt  appearance 
objects  of  sympathy  or  suspicion  to  those 
who  met  us  by  day,  or  to  those  with  whom  we 
sought  lodging  by  night.  We  visited,  among 
other  places,  the  Sabine  farm  of  Horace,  and 
found,  or  thought  we  found,  in  an  open  field, 
the  threshold  of  the  door  of  his  home,  where 
the  great  poet  passed  in  and  out  in  those  now 
far  distant  days.  Of  course  echoes  of  those 
days  came  back  to  us  in  the  form  of  the  fa- 
miliar words  of  his  "  Odes  "  and  "  Epistles." 


134  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

After  our  return  to  Eome  we  soon  left  the 
Eternal  City,  and  passed  on  to  Florence  with 
its  wonderful  picture  galleries ;  Pisa  with  its 
leaning  tower;  and  Venice,  that  wonderful 
city  of  the  sea.  How  vividly  I  recall  the 
morning  after  our  arrival  in  Venice,  when 
we  heard  no  rolling  sound  in  the  streets,  but 
only  the  splashing  of  the  oars  of  the  gondolas 
beneath  our  chamber  windows.  I  have  good 
reason  to  remember  that  morning,  for  it  was 
the  fourth  of  July,  so  noisy  at  home,  but  so 
quiet  there. 

As  my  letters  had  fallen  behind  us  in 
our  rapid  travel  through  Italy,  at  Venice  I 
hastened  to  the  post-ofBce  early  in  the  morn- 
ing. There  I  found  a  letter  from  my  brother 
at  home,  announcing  the  instantaneous  death 
of  our  dear  father;  he  had  been  gone  more 
than  a  month,  during  which  we  had  so  much 
enjoyed  our  travels,  all  unconscious  of  our 
sad  loss.  He  had  fallen  dead  while  plowing 
in  the  field.  I  was  so  stunned  and  bewildered 
that  I  did  not  know  what  to  say  or  think.  I 
felt  that  my  mother  must  be  comforted  in 
her  bereavement  by  our  instant  return,  and  I 
sought  a  telegraph  office,  intending  to  send 
a  cable  message.     But  cable  messages  were 


TRAVEL  AND  STUDY  ABROAD:  1867-68    135 

then  a  new  thing  and  the  cost  (about  thirty 
dollars)  was  more  than  I  could  well  afford. 
I  had  to  be  content  with  a  letter,  which  I  sent 
at  once  to  my  mother,  promising  a  prompt 
return.  Up  to  that  time  we  had  hoped  to 
spend  a  second  winter  in  Paris  before  return- 
ing, but  now  that  was  out  of  the  question. 

We  spent  a  few  days  more  in  Venice — all 
too  few  for  that  wonderful  city,  which  we 
had  come  so  far  to  visit;  then  returned  across 
northern  Italy,  spending  one  night  in  Milan, 
crossing  into  Switzerland  over  the  Simplon 
Pass ;  spent  a  short  time  at  Chamounix,  sur- 
rounded by  icy  mountain  peaks;  passed 
through  Geneva  and  down  the  lovely  Ehine, 
with  many  a  castle-covered  crag  on  either 
side ;  through  Strasburg,  getting  only  a  brief 
ghmpse  of  its  wonderful  cathedral;  thence  to 
Antwerp  and  down  the  "lazy  Scheldt,"  with 
its  great  windmills  on  either  side  pumping 
the  waters  of  that  low  country  high  enough 
to  run  into  the  sea;  across  the  North  Sea  to 
Harwich;  and  thence  to  London.  We  were 
seeing  London  for  the  first  time,  but  of  the 
glories  of  its  Westminster  Abbey  and  its 
Tower  of  London  we  had  only  glimpses. 
From  Liverpool  we  set  sail  at  last  for  home 


136  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

in  the  steamer  Aleppo — not  one  of  the  fast- 
est, but  a  great  contrast  to  the  poor  little 
Cella,  in  which  we  had.  crossed  the  previous 
year.  We  arrived  safely  in  New  York  after 
a  smooth  and  pleasant  passage,  and  lost  no 
time  in  reaching  our  Bucks  County  home, 
where  my  lonesome  mother  was  anxiously 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  her  eldest  son. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PREPARATIONS  FOR   OPENING  SWARTHMORE 

COLLEGE 

1868-1869 

AFTER  our  return  from  Europe  there  was 
still  a  little  more  than  a  year  left  before 
the  opening  of  Swarthmore  College.  This 
period  I  spent  in  settling  my  father's  estate, 
in  earing  for  and  watching  over  my  afflicted 
mother,  in  arranging  for  the  organization  of 
the  preparatory  school;  also  in  writing  and 
delivering,  in  Philadelphia  and  elsewhere,  lec- 
tures on  ^^The  Coeducation  of  the  Sexes"  and 
on  other  subjects  connected  with  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  college.  I  occasionally  visited  the 
college  grounds,  looking  after  the  finishing 
work  yet  to  be  done,  the  supplying  of  needed 
books  and  desks,  etc.  I  met  the  new  faculty 
occasionally  in  Philadelphia  at  the  house  of 
our  president,  Edward  Parrish,  and  attended 
to  a  mass  of  detail  which  the  great  work  before 
us  involved.   As  I  look  back  upon  this  time, 


138  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

now  so  far  in  the  past,  I  can  scarcely  under- 
stand how  so  many  important  and  unavoidable 
engagements  could  have  been  crowded  into 
that  one  last  preparatory  year  of  1868-69. 

I  also  spent  much  time  with  our  dear 
mother  through  that,  her  last  winter  upon 
earth.  She  was  not  in  our  home  at  "  Shady 
Bank,"  but  with  my  youngest  sister,  Matilda, 
not  far  away,  at  "  Seven  Pines ;  "  in  the  late 
fall  and  early  winter  she  lived  at  the  quiet  and 
charming  home  of  my  brother-in-law,  J.  S. 
Williams,  at  "The  Hedges."  As  she  grew 
weaker,  she  wished  to  be  more  with  her  young- 
est daughter.  She  felt  a  great  interest  in 
Swarthmore  College,  where  I  was  to  begin  my 
work  the  following  autumn.  Many  a  night  I 
passed  the  long  hours  at  her  bedside,  and  she 
would  often  soothe  her  pain  by  repeating 
aloud  snatches  of  verse  which,  from  her  lips, 
had  been  famiUar  to  me  in  my  childhood.  Her 
last  words  to  me  when  I  first  left  home,  at 
nineteen  years  of  age,  seemed  ever  before  me. 
She  had  told  me  then  that  I  was  starting  out 
for  myself  in  the  world,  that  I  must  be  very 
careful,  even  in  little  things,  to  do  that  which 
I  felt  to  be  right,  no  matter  what  advantage 
it  might  seem  to  me  at  the  time  to  take  any 


SWARTHMORE  COLLEGE:  1868-69         139 

other  course.  Her  religious  teaching  had  no- 
thing to  do  with  creeds  or  belief s,  but  referred 
always  to  conduct,  to  the  performance  of  the 
day's  duties  to-day,  I  could  but  feel  that  I 
owed  more  to  my  mother  and  to  her  influence 
than  to  any  teacher  or  professor  under  whose 
instruction  I  had  passed.  Surely  there  is  no 
influence  in  life  more  potent  than  a  mother's, 
and  no  voice  so  long  remembered  as  a  mother's 
voice. 

In  our  preliminary  faculty  meetings  during 
this  year,  one  of  the  subjects  which  caused 
much  discussion  was  the  decision  to  be  made 
on  the  use  of  tobacco  by  the  students.  Al- 
though at  first  the  members  of  our  little 
faculty  of  six  (only  five  of  whom  constituted 
the  faculty  proper  in  the  beginning)  were  not 
all  of  one  mind  about  the  advisability  of  pro- 
hibiting its  use,  we  came  in  the  end  to  the 
unanimous  agreement  that  we  must  take  a 
decided  stand  on  the  subject.  Our  meetings 
were  then  usually  attended  by  Edward  Parrish 
and  his  wife  Margaret,  Anna  and  Emily  Hal- 
lowell,  the  dean  (then  denominated  matron), 
Helen  G.  Longstreth,  and  Clement  L.  Smith. 
Of  these,  Emily  Hallowell,  being  the  youngest, 
was  not  included  in  the  faculty  when  it  was 


140  LIFE  OP  A  TEACHER 

fully  organized.  0£  the  original  members  of 
the  faculty,  but  two  now  survive.  These  are 
Clement  L.  Smith,  our  first  secretary,  who, 
after  one  year's  service  at  Swarthmore,  was 
called  to  a  professorship  at  Harvard,  where 
he  has  since  had  a  successful  career  of  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  myself. 


CHAPTER  X 

OPENING     OF     SWARTHMORE    COLLEGE    AND    PRE- 
PARATORY  SCHOOL 

1869-1870 

WE  had  hoped  to  open  the  college  in 
September,  about  the  usual  time  for 
opening  after  the  summer  vacation,  but  when 
the  time  came  the  roof  was  not  finished  on 
the  main  building,  which  has  since  been  ap- 
propriately called  Parrish  Hall,  after  the  first 
president.  Various  inside  arrangements  also 
were  incomplete ;  in  particular,  the  central 
hall,  which  was  to  be  used  as  a  study-room  for 
the  preparatory  school,  was  not  yet  equipped 
with  seats  and  desks.  The  delay  had  been 
caused  by  a  postponement  of  the  work  in 
the  summer,  the  funds  collected  being  ex- 
hausted, and  an  additional  supply  having  to 
be  raised  by  subscription ;  for  the  cautious 
Friends  did  not  wish  to  incumber  the  pro- 
perty with  a  mortgage.  We  issued  a  circular, 
a  copy  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  room 


142  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

now  called  "Friends'  Historical  Library," 
but  then  known  as  "  The  Anson  Lapham 
Eepository/'  from  the  name  of  its  founder. 
This  circular  shows  that  our  opening  did  not 
occur  until  early  in  November.  Even  to  do 
that,  our  cautious  attitude  during  the  years 
of  building  the  college  had  to  be  abandoned, 
and  a  small  mortgage  was  executed  upon 
the  property.  This  was  long  since  Uquidated 
by  an  undesirable  procedure  to  be  later  ex- 
plained. 

When  the  time  for  opening  came,  the  fac- 
ulty, whom  I  have  already  named,  were  all 
present,  ready  to  receive  and  classify  the  stu- 
dents, and  to  begin  work. 

The  first  task  before  us  was  to  examine  and 
make  a  partial  classification  of  the  applicants, 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  or  one 
hundred  and  thirty  in  number.  In  the  be- 
ginning we  could  not  reject  any,  but  must 
determine  their  places  in  class,  and  record 
their  names.  We  soon  found  that  very  few 
of  the  number  presented  were  properly  qual- 
ified to  enter  a  college  class,  and  yet  in  the 
beginning  we  had  hoped  to  enter  a  large  num- 
ber as  Freshmen,  as  these  would  necessarily 
form  the  entire  college  proper  for  the  first 


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OPENING  OF  SWARTHMORE  :  1869-70     143 

year.  Of  the  few  who  entered  this  first  Fresh- 
man class,  several  dropped  out  in  the  course 
of  four  years,  and  in  1873,  or  four  years  later, 
but  six  —  five  young  women  and  one  young, 
man  —  were  ready  to  receive  a  degree.  The 
causes  for  this,  if  not  self-evident,  will  be 
made  clear  as  we  proceed.  The  whole  number 
who  presented  themselves  were  registered  in 
the  president's  office,  to  be  classified  later. 
All  the  examinations  for  the  classification 
were  in  writing.  Then  came  the  great  labor, 
with  our  small  faculty,  of  making  a  tentative 
classification,  first  into  freshman  and  prepar- 
atory students ;  and  then  the  latter  were  to 
be  divided  into  three  classes.  A,  B,  and  C. 
Each  of  these  was  further  divided  into  two  or 
three  sections,  as  qualifications  seemed  to  re- 
quire. Cornell  University  had  opened  the  pre- 
vious year,  and  one  difficulty  was  encountered 
there  which  we  escaped,  small  college  though 
we  were.  One  young  man,  who  had  been  a 
teamster,  came  into  the  preliminary  examina- 
tion, and  when  questioned  said  that  he  could 
neither  read  nor  write.  When  asked  why  he 
came  to  college,  he  quoted  the  words  of  Ezra 
Cornell,  the  founder,  who  had  said,  "I  would 
found  a  literary  institution  where  any  person 


144  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

may  receive  instruction  on  any  subject,"  and 
he  added,  "  I  would  like  to  learn  to  read  and 
write."  Of  course  he  was  promptly  advised 
to  enter  a  common  school. 

Our  preliminary  examinations  and  classifi- 
cations occupied  three  days ;  another  day  was 
devoted  to  distributing  the  books  required. 
These  were  at  first  furnished  at  the  expense 
of  the  college,  without  charge  for  use,  to  be 
returned  to  the  book-room  when  done  with. 
This  unusual  practice  was  not  continued  many 
years ;  but  it  required  some  time  before  par- 
ents among  Friends  were  satisfied  to  incur  the 
expense  of  furnishing  books,  especially  when 
the  college  required  studies  which  they  did 
not  desire.  They  seemed  to  think  that  if  we 
required  certain  studies  we  should  furnish,  at 
our  own  expense,  the  necessary  books.  I  recall 
vividly,  at  this  moment,  the  appearance  of 
our  chemical  laboratory,  so  called,  just  back 
of  what  was  later  called  the  collecting-room, 
when  that  first  year  closed,  in  1870.  Students 
were  told  to  return  their  books  to  this  room, 
then  empty,  and  to  put  them  on  the  floor  on 
the  west  side.  By  the  time  the  students  had 
left  for  the  summer  vacation,  the  west  side  of 
this  room  was  filled  nearly  to  the  ceiling  with 


OPENING  OP  SWARTHMORE:  1869-70     145 

books,  not  regularly  piled  but  thrown  in  pell- 
mell,  and  the  pile  sloped  down  toward  the  floor 
on  the  east  side.  Of  course  the  destruction  of 
books  thus  treated  was  great :  the  difficulty 
was  that  they  were  understood  to  be  college 
property,  and  not  to  belong  to  those  who  used 
them.  Not  many  years  passed  before  books 
were  supplied  as  needed,  but  for  their  use 
there  was  a  regular  charge.  This  rather  trivial 
matter  gives  some  idea  of  the  countless  details 
needing  attention  in  that  early  time. 

The  one  class  in  the  college  proper  was 
very  small  that  opening  year,  the  number 
found  to  be  even  fairly  prepared  to  be  Fresh- 
men scarcely  reaching  twenty.  In  1873,  when 
we  graduated  the  first  class,  these  were  reduced 
to  six.  This  class  always  had  the  distinction 
of  being  called  the  First  Class  during  its  en- 
tire four  years  in  college ;  a  distinction,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  say,  which  they  did  not  fail 
to  appreciate.  When  their  graduation  came, 
in  1873,  all  six  were  appointed  to  speak,  and 
the  exercises  were  so  dignified  and  well  pre- 
pared, and  gave  so  much  pleasure  to  our  good 
friend  Samuel  Willets  (then  president  of  the 
board  of  managers),  that  he  ordered  all  the 
addresses  to  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form  at 


146  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

his  own  expense.  From  the  first  he  had  ever 
been  ready  to  aid  us  financially.  But  for  his  lib- 
eral aid,  so  generously  extended,  the  opening 
of  Swarthmore  College  would  probably  have 
been  postponed  several  years.  The  pamphlet 
just  mentioned  was  widely  distributed,  and  I 
felt  at  the  time  that  it  was  an  excellent  mea- 
sure, for  it  did  much  to  encourage  Friends 
to  seek  a  college  education  for  their  chil- 
dren.^ We  followed  at  first  what  was  then  the 
usual  college  practice,  and  appointed  the  best 
scholar,  not  necessarily  the  best  speaker,  as 
valedictorian.  In  this  class,  Maria  C.  Pierce 
was  valedictorian.  She  was  one  of  the  three 
appointed  as  teachers  at  graduation,  and  was 
soon  after  married  to  Professor  Samuel  S. 
Green.  Her  early  death  we  all  greatly  deplored, 
for  she  died  during  their  travels  abroad,  the 
first  year  after  their  marriage.  The  other  two 
teachers,  Ehzabeth  C.  Miller  and  Esther  T. 
Moore,  some  years  later,  married  professors 
in  the  college.  The  student  who  stood  next 
in  scholarship  to  Maria  C.  Pierce  was  Helen 
Magill,  my  eldest  daughter,  of  whose  two  to 

^  A  copy  of  this  pamphlet  is  preserved  in  the  Friends* 
Historical  Library  at  the  college.  It  is  an  interesting  relic 
of  those  early  days. 


OPENING  OF  SWARTHMORE:  1869-70       147 

three  years'  study  in  the  Public  Latin  School 
of  Boston  —  a  school  for  boys  only  —  and  of 
whose  studies  in  Paris  during  our  first  visit 
abroad  I  have  already  spoken.  After  her 
graduation  at  Swarthmore,  she  pursued  a  uni- 
versity course  in  Boston  University,  taking  xX 
there  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.,  being  the  first  wo- 
man in  this  country  upon  whom  that  degree 
was  conferred.  She  then  spent  nearly  four 
years  at  Newnham  College,  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, taking  the  classical  Tripos  Examination, 
and  became  later,  after  a  few  years  of  teach- 
ing, the  wife  of  the  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White, 
of  Ithaca,  New  York. 

From  the  very  first  the  idea  was  impressed 
upon  our  students  that,  after  graduation  at 
Swarthmore,  they  should  add  to  their  educa- 
tion with  us,  whenever  at  all  possible,  univer- 
sity studies  for  a  higher  degree.  Beginning 
with  this  idea,  the  college  has  never  aimed  to 
do  university  work,  but  to  confine  itself  to  the 
legitimate  work  of  a  small  college,  feeling  that 
in  this  way,  at  least  for  many  years  to  come, 
it  could  do  best  and  most  thoroughly  its  pro- 
per work.  As  it  was  organized  by  Friends,  it 
may  be  supposed  to  be  of  a  somewhat  denom- 
inational character.   This,  however,  is  not  true. 


148  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

All  the  officers  and  students  of  the  college  may 
be  of  any  or  of  no  denomination,  but  Friends 
only  may  constitute  its  board  of  managers. 
This  provision  was  made  in  our  charter  to  pre- 
vent the  institution  from  ever  falling  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  might  make  it  a  sectarian 
college.  The  religion  taught  in  the  college  is 
that  of  life,  conduct,  and  character,  rather  than 
the  narrower  tenets  of  any  particular  form  of 
religious  belief.  As  a  result,  the  college  has 
been  patronized  by  all  denominations,  and  no 
effort  to  proselyte  has  ever  been  made. 

Our  fixed  position  as  a  small  coUege,  doing 
as  well  as  we  could  the  proper  work  of  a  small 
college  and  never  aiming  at  post-graduate  or 
university  work,  had  the  advantage  of  ena- 
bling us  to  do  well  what  we  aimed  to  do.  The 
moderate  size  of  the  student  body  enabled  all 
to  come  in  close  touch  with,  and  be  influenced 
by,  those  occupying  positions  in  our  faculty. 
I  write  these  words  just  after  the  college  has 
graduated  its  thirty-fifth  class,  and  throughout 
this  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  this  ob- 
ject has  been  borne  steadily  in  mind. 

We  also  flatter  ourselves  that  our  young 
college  has  done  its  full  share  in  bringing 
about  such  educational  conditions  in  our  coun- 


OPENING  OF  SWARTHMORE:  1869-70       149 

try  that  professors  and  teachers  must  have 
good  training  in  an  institution  of  a  higher 
grade  than  that  in  which  they  are  employed. 
So  long  as  teaching  the  young  is  used  merely 
as  a  convenient  stepping-stone  to  some  more 
lucrative  position,  teaching  can  never  become 
a  profession,  strictly  speaking.  Teachers  of 
common  schools  should  have  at  least  a  high- 
school  education;  those  of  high  schools,  a 
college  education,  and  all  college  profes- 
sors should  have  a  university  degree  with  the 
major  study  the  specialty  which  they  profess. 
Some  of  us  advocated  this  grading  of  teachers 
as  long  ago  as  the  founding  of  Swarthmore 
College.  At  that  time  it  was  regarded  by 
many  as  chimerical  and  visionary,  but  little  by 
little,  as  our  educational  system  has  developed, 
it  has  become  a  generally  accepted  theory. 

In  the  early  years  of  our  college,  before  the 
first  graduating  class  went  out,  but  few  stu- 
dents entered  Swarthmore  with  the  idea  of  even 
a  four  years'  college  education.  Many  Friends, 
iiideed  I  may  say  most  Friends,  considered  the 
college  to  be  of  the  same  grade  as  Westtown, 
or  any  other  boarding-school.  Naturally,  in 
such  schools  the  courses  were  very  irregular, 
and  students  were  entered  for  two  or  three 


150  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

years  at  most.  Those  entering  Swarthmore  at 
that  early  period  came  with  the  same  idea,  and 
although  from  the  beginning  our  courses  were 
laid  out  to  cover  three  years  in  the  prepara- 
tory department  and  four  years  in  the  college, 
not  one  in  ten  of  those  who  entered  the  low- 
est class  expected  their  education  to  cover  that 
number  of  years.  In  this,  as  in  many  other 
things  at  that  time,  a  proper  public  sentiment 
had  to  be  created,  not  merely  among  the  stu- 
dents, but,  through  them,  among  their  parents 

v/  at  home.  At  first  many  left  after  two  or  three 
preparatory  years  without  ever  entering  the 
college,  and  the  idea  that  a  very  low  grade  of 
scholarship  prevailed  at  Swarthmore  was  quite 
naturally  entertained.  Some  of  those  who  at 
first  entered  the  college  proper  started  the  cus- 
tom of  taking  a  two  years'  course,  leaving  at 
the  end  of  the  Sophomore  year.  If,  however, 
they  passed  that  point  and  entered  the  Junior 
class,  they  usually  took  a  degree,  very  few 
leaving  if  they  passed  their  examinations  and 

•^  were  promoted  to  the  Senior  class.  It  may  be 
difficult  now  to  realize  fully  the  magnitude 
of  the  obstacles  with  which  we  had  to  contend 
in  creating  a  public  opinion  among  Friends  in 
favor  of  a  full  four  years'  course. 


OPENING  OF  SWARTHMORE:  1869-70       161 

Perhaps  an  even  greater  difficulty  in  those 
days  was  the  application  of  different  kinds  of 
discipline  in  the  school  and  in  the  college, 
both  kept  under  one  roof.  It  was  absolutely  v/ 
necessary  to  maintain  this  combination  of 
schools  at  that  time;  the  college  could  never 
have  been  started  among  Friends  without  the 
preparatory  school.  Let  it  be  understood  that 
I  do  not  mention  this  arrangement  to  criticise 
it,  for,  considering  the  condition  of  education 
among  Friends  at  that  time,  it  was  clearly 
unavoidable. 

During  the  first  year,  1869-70,  and  the 
first  part  of  the  second  year,  Edward  Parrish 
was  president.  That  he  had  heavy  and  re- 
sponsible duties  in  getting  the  institution 
started  on  a  truly  college  basis,  I  had  abun- 
dant reason  to  know,  both  before  and  after 
the  opening.  His  volume  on  "Education  in 
the  Eeligious  Society  of  Friends,"  his  numer- 
ous lectures  among  Friends  and  others,  before 
and  after  the  opening,  and  his  voluminous 
correspondence,  all  bore  testimony  to  this 
weighty  care  and  responsibility.  He  was  an 
excellent  lecturer  on  his  favorite  subject, 
chemistry,  a  field  in  which  previous  study 
and  training  had  well  prepared  him.   He  was 


152  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

always  gentlemanly,  kind,  and  courteous  in 
his  treatment  of  his  students,  and  was  de- 
servedly beloved  by  them.  He  did  a  very 
large  share  of  the  labor  of  soliciting  the  pecu- 
niary aid  necessary  to  the  estabhshment  of 
the  college,  and  but  for  his  long  and  patient 
labors  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  the 
college  could  have  been  opened  at  that  time. 
President  Parrish  had  a  serious  difficulty  to 
contend  with  which  I  must  not  omit  to  mention 
here.  This  was  the  apparent  fear  on  the  part 
of  a  number  of  the  leading  managers  that  a 
college  president  might  become  too  strong  for 
their  democratic  ideas ;  hence  a  disposition  to 
thwart  some  of  his  favorite  plans.  It  is  by 
no  means  a  pleasant  duty  to  refer  to  these 
difficulties  encountered  by  our  first  president, 
but  I  do  not  feel  that  I  should  perform  my 
duty  to-day  if  I  passed  over  the  matter  in  dis- 
creet silence.  Those  who  opposed  him  were 
doubtless  as  honest  in  their  convictions  as  he; 
they  felt  it  their  duty  to  prevent  too  much 
power  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  one  man ; 
and  they  have  now,  most  of  them,  passed  on 
to  the  life  beyond,  with  duties,  as  they  under- 
stood them,  well  performed.  It  has  now  come 
to  be  well  understood   among  us   that   the 


OPENING  OF  SWARTHMOKE:  1869-70       153 

power  of  a  president,  if  he  is  to  be  successful, 
must  be  fully  recognized,  and  that  the  part 
of  the  managers  is  not  so  much  to  direct  as 
to  approve  or  disapprove  his  course.  If  he 
and  his  managers  come  to  be  too  much  at 
variance  on  important  points,  his  successor 
must  be  chosen  by  those  authorized  to  do  so. 
These  various  causes  of  difficulty,  combined, 
wore  heavily  upon  President  Parrish,  and 
through  that  second  winter,  1870-71,  he  was 
a  deeply  disappointed  man.  His  health  suf- 
fered in  consequence,  and  early  in  the  spring 
of  1871  he  resigned  the  presidency.  After  the 
sudden  death  of  his  wife,  Margaret  Parrish, 
the  amiable  first  social  head  of  the  household, 
he  accepted  an  appointment  under  President 
Grant,  who  sought  especially  Friends  for  ser- 
vice among  the  Indians.  A  few  months  later, 
his  gentle,  genial,  and  lovely  life  came  to  an 
end  in  the  far  West.  This  was  indeed  a  sad 
episode  in  Swarthmore's  early  history. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOME   EAJRLY   PROFESSORS    OF   SWARTHMORE 

COLLEGE 

I  HAVE  spoken  of  our  first  President,  Ed- 
ward Parrish,  and  of  the  various  influences 
which  he  brought  to  bear  to  insure  the  suc- 
cess of  Swarthmore  College  in  those  early  days. 
Recognizing  the  fact  which  President  Oilman, 
the  first  president  of  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity, made  so  prominent  in  the  beginnings 
of  that  university,  —  that  a  great  educational 
institution  is  made  up  of  able  men  and  not  of 
bricks,  stone,  and  mortar,  —  he  sought  out 
carefully  the  right  persons  for  the  Faculty  of 
instruction. 

First  to  be  named  among  these  is  Joseph 
Leidy,  who  as  an  authority  in  natural  science 
was  scarcely  second  to  Agassiz,  and  who  served 
the  college  faithfully  and  successfully,  as  non- 
resident professor,  for  many  years.  His  lec- 
tures on  natural  history  —  zoology,  botany, 
and  mineralogy  —  were  very  popular.   They 


JOSEPH  LEIDY,  M.  D.,  LL.  D. 


A  JR. 
^    UNIVERSITY 


OF 


«t4Nj 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    155 

were  attended  by  many  visitors,  and  by  stu- 
dents whose  special  courses  did  not  include 
those  studies.  He  was  more  largely  instrumen- 
tal than  all  the  rest  of  us  combined  in  collect- 
ing, and  property  arranging  for  instruction,  a 
museum  of  natural  history.  His  lectures,  in- 
volving a  profound  knowledge  of  all  he  taught, 
were  presented  in  so  simple  and  attractive  a 
form  that  even  children  could  understand  his 
descriptions,  and  followed  his  courses,  when 
permitted  to  be  present,  with  the  greatest 
pleasure.  I  may  mention,  as  an  illustration, 
my  youngest  daughter,  then  some  five  or  six 
years  old,  who  never  lost  an  opportunity  to 
hear  "Dr.  Leidy's  lecture,"  for  her  the  great 
event  of  the  week.  On  one  occasion,  running 
on  the  asphalt  walk  in  front  of  the  college, 
she  fell  and  hurt  her  knee.  When  asked  what 
she  had  fallen  on  to  cut  it  so,  she  repUed : 
^'  Oh,  I  don't  know,  but  I  think  it  was  a  piece 
of  quartz ! " 

Dr.  Leidy's  home  in  Philadelphia,  where  I 
often  met  him,  was  an  interesting  place,  a  kind 
of  museum  of  natural  history.  He  kept  in  his 
study,  and  of  ttimes  in  other  rooms,  reptiles  of 
various  kinds,  which  he  was  feeding  and  ex- 
perimenting with,  and  they  often  seemed  to 


156  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

wander,  quite  at  will,  into  other  parts  of  the 
house.  I  have  heard  that  his  wife  never  re- 
tired to  bed  at  night  without  first  turning 
down  the  sheets  with  great  care,  to  make  sure 
that  no  toads,  mice,  snakes,  lizards,  or  other 
reptiles  as  yet  without  a  name,  were  taking 
shelter  between  them.  Dr.  Leidj  used  to  say 
to  me  that  he  never  lost  a  moment  in  waiting 
at  a  station  for  a  coming  train ;  for  he  walked 
out  along  the  fencerows  or  ponds  and  rarely 
passed  thus  an  imoccupied  quarter  of  an  hour 
without  making  some  discovery,  or  seeing 
something  of  which  he  had  never  read  or  heard 
before.  A  pond  near  the  station  at  Swarth- 
more,  long  ago  filled  and  graded  over,  was 
to  the  doctor  a  fruitful  field  of  discovery;  he 
found  creatures  there,  with  or  without  fins  or 
eyes  or  hmbs,  of  which  I  would  not  venture 
to  pronounce  or  spell  the  names.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  brought  some  small  turtles  from  a 
pond  at  South  Street  Station,  Philadelphia, 
to  be  used  as  illustrations  in  his  class.  He  was 
asked  to  put  them  in  this  pond  at  Swarth- 
more,  but  he  said  that  he  had  promised  them 
to  put  them  back  in  their  own  pond,  and 
could  not,  of  course,  break  his  promise. 
With  reference  to  names  used  by  students  of 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    157 

natural  history,  the  doctor  always  advocated 
the  study  of  Greek,  at  least  enough,  he  used 
to  say,  to  enable  them  to  look  up  in  a  Greek 
dictionary  the  terms  used  in  their  studies. 

Our  museum,  which  was  the  doctor's  great- 
est pleasure  when  with  us,  was  remarkable  for 
its  richness  and  especially  for  its  excellent  ar- 
rangement for  purposes  of  instruction.  After 
the  great  fire  in  the  autumn  of  1881,  Dr. 
Leidy  was  stepping  on  board  a  ferryboat  to 
go  to  Camden,  when  he  saw  in  a  morning 
paper  the  startling  announcement,  "Swarth- 
more  College  totally  destroyed  by  fire."  He 
at  once  turned  back  and  took  the  first  train 
for  Swarthmore;  as  he  stepped  out  of  the 
train  and  started  up  the  asphalt  walk  toward 
the  bare  and  blackened  walls,  he  said :  "  There 
are  ten  years  of  my  life  gone  forever."  And 
well  he  might  say  it,  for  no  one  had  been  de- 
voted more  than  he  to  the  work  of  building 
up  Swarthmore  in  all  that  pertained  to  his 
department. 

Some  years  later,  after  the  death  of  the 
great  Agassiz,  Dr.  Leidy  very  naturally  was 
invited  to  follow  him  at  Harvard,  and  we 
feared  greatly  that  we  were  to  lose  his  ser- 
vices.   These  cost  the  college  very  little  in 


158  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

money,  aside  from  his  too  meagre  salary,  as 
Joseph  Jeanes,  of  Philadelphia,  never  failed 
to  give  him  fifty,  a  hundred,  or  even  five  hun- 
dred dollars,  when  a  sum  was  needed  to  pur- 
chase collections  for  his  department.  Our 
fears  were  not  realized,  for,  after  a  brief  con- 
sideration, he  declined  the  offer  from  Harvard. 
He  afterwards  told  me  that  a  rose-tree  or 
a  small  shrub  could  be  transplanted,  but  the 
same  experiment  tried  upon  an  oak-tree  would 
prove  a  failure ;  after  his  years  of  labor  in 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  in  Swarth- 
more,  he  felt  too  well  planted  to  risk  trans- 
planting from  Pennsylvania  to  Massachusetts. 
Of  course  we  all  rejoiced,  and  for  several 
years  he  continued  his  work  with  us,  until  he 
found  that  the  increasing  demands  upon  him 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the 
then  thriving  presidency  of  Dr.  Wilham  Pep- 
per, required  him  to  give  his  whole  time  to 
one  institution.  His  picture  adorns  the  walls 
of  our  assembly  room  to-day,  but  a  large, 
full-length  portrait  would  be  more  appropriate 
for  him  who  rightly  holds,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  the  first  place  among  our  professors. 

Since  the  loss  of  Dr.  Leidy,   Swarthmore 
has  been  fortunate  in  making  but  two  changes 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    159 

in  that  department.  Charles  E.  Dolley,  and 
the  present  occupant  of  the  chair,  Spencer 
Trotter,  are  two  younger  men  whose  names, 
in  the  future,  may  shine  scarcely  second  to 
that  of  their  illustrious  predecessor. 

For  another  of  our  early  professors  we 
are  indebted  to  Edward  Parrish.  This  was  Jo- 
seph Thomas,  non-resident  professor  of  Eng- 
lish literature.  His  great  work  entitled  "A 
Universal  Pronouncing  Dictionary  of  Bio- 
graphy and  Mythology  "  was  pubHshed  by  the 
Lippincotts  of  Philadelphia  in  1870-71,  in 
two  volumes.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  first 
edition  was  about  to  appear  on  the  opening  of 
the  college  in  1869.  This  work  was  known  to 
Edward  Parrish,  and  it  was  this  that  led  him 
to  select  its  author  as  a  non-resident  profes- 
sor at  the  opening  of  the  college,  or  a  short 
time  after.  Of  this  remarkable  work  "  The  Na- 
tion "  said  :  "  This  is  the  best  as  well  as  the 
most  comprehensive  book  of  its  description 
emanating  from  the  pen  of  one  writer,  in  any 
language,  which  has  come  under  our  notice." 
Dr.  Thomas  also  pubhshed,  in  1886,  "  A  Com- 
plete Pronouncing  Medical  Dictionary." 

Dr.  Thomas  was  born  in  1811,  in  Cayuga 
County,  New  York;   was   educated  at  Yale 


160  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  at  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute, 
and  later  graduated  in  medicine  in  Philadel- 
phia. He  spent  many  of  the  best  years  of  his 
life  upon  the  works  just  named.  The  repre- 
sentation of  the  proper  pronunciation  of  the 
names,  which  was  indicated  by  ingenious  de- 
vices of  his  own,  gave  great  charm  to  this 
difficult  part  of  his  work.  He  employed  many 
assistants,  one  of  whom  was  my  eldest  sister, 
and  his  long  and  late  hours  of  labor  were 
quite  familiar  to  me.  To  obtain  the  needed 
data  he  traveled  in  many  lands,  and  often 
sent  by  his  friends,  who  were  going  abroad, 
specific  questions  to  well-known  personages. 
On  my  first  visit  to  Europe,  in  1867-68,  he 
intrusted  to  me  several  of  these  questions,  and 
so  far  as  possible  I  saw  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  families  from  whom  he  desired 
information.  One  of  the  names  on  my  list  was 
that  of  Frangois  Guizot,  the  distinguished 
author  of  the  "  History  of  Civilization,"  a  work 
which,  as  I  have  said,  constituted  my  major 
study  for  my  degree  of  A.  M.  in  Brown  Uni- 
versity. One  of  the  lecturers  at  the  Sorbonne 
to  whom  I  listened  with  much  pleasure  in  that 
memorable  winter  of  1867-68,  was  Guillaume 
Guizot,  son  of  the  historian,  whose  personal 


JOSEPH   THOMAS,  M.  D.,   LL.  D. 


V       OfTHC  \ 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    161 

acquaintance  I  made.  He  informed  me  that 
there  were  two  recognized  pronunciations  of 
their  name.  Their  family,  which  came  origi- 
nally from  the  south  of  France,  pronounced 
the  name  Ghizo,  but  his  father,  from  his  resi- 
dence in  Paris,  had  acquired  the  habit  of 
saying  Gwizo, 

Dr.  Thomas's  lectures  on  English  litera- 
ture were  excellent  and  well  appreciated.  As 
he  was  rather  feeble,  at  my  suggestion  he  sat 
while  he  lectured,  a  practice  more  uncommon 
then  than  to-day.  He  was  fond  of  giving 
neat  and  concise  forms  of  expression  to  a 
valuable  thought,  and  these  he  would  have 
the  students  fix  firmly  in  their  minds.  A 
favorite  quotation  of  his  was :  "  Trifles  make 
perfection,  but  perfection,  my  young  friends, 
is  no  trifle."  I  have  said  that  he  traveled 
much;  this  he  had  done  to  prepare  for  his 
great  work.  The  Biographical  Dictionary  and 
the  expenses  of  travel  involved  him  in  a  heavy 
debt,  which  was  a  burden  to  him  to  the  end 
of  his  life.  Of  this  he  assured  me  on  my  last 
visit  to  him,  just  before  his  death. 

The  saddest  thing  to  me  about  the  history 
of  this  good  man  was  that,  having,  with  others, 
taken  refuge  in  a  fort  in  India,  in  a  great 


162  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

uprising  which  occurred  not  long  after  the 
Sepoy  rebellion,  and  having  used  arms  to  help 
defend  the  fort,  and  save  the  lives  of  the  men, 
women,  and  children  who  had  taken  refuge 
there,  he  was  disciplined  for  this  in  his  meet- 
ing of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  disowned 
(that  is,  excluded  from  membership)  for  the 
violation  of  their  testimony  against  bearing 
arms.  Much  as  he  loved  the  Society  and  its 
leading  college,  he  felt  this  to  be  treatment 
which  he  could  never  forget.  I  frequently 
heard  him  speak  of  this,  and  he  always  felt 
that  I  had  for  him  a  sincere  sympathy. 
Closer  relations  than  ours  were  seldom  felt 
between  a  president  and  a  member  of  his 
faculty.  He  had  been  professor  of  Greek 
and  Latin  in  Haverford  College  in  its  open- 
ing years;  later  he  was  lecturer  there  on  his- 
tory, and  he  kept  a  warm  and  sympathetic 
interest  in  that  college  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
It  is  proper  to  mention,  in  this  connection, 
that  the  two  colleges,  Haverford  and  Swarth- 
more,  being  but  ten  miles  apart,  felt  an  interest 
in  and  sympathy  with  each  other  from  the  time 
of  our  opening  in  1869,  when  Haverford  was 
of  exactly  the  same  age  that  Swarthmore  is  as 
I  write  these  lines,  i.  e.  thirty-six  years.  At  our 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    163 

opening.  President  Gummere  was  at  the  head 
of  Haverford,  and  he  it  was  who  first  induced 
me  to  join  the  Brown  University  Club  in  Phil- 
adelphia, as  we  were  both  Brown  alumni,  and 
my  interest  in  that  club,  over  which  I  presided 
one  year,  is  continued  to  the  present  day. 
Later,  when  President  Chase  succeeded  Presi- 
dent Gummere,  the  two  colleges  continued  to 
feel  that  it  was  their  place  to  do  what  they 
could  to  heal  the  wounds  caused  by  the  divi- 
sion of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  1827.  It  was 
our  view  that  differences  should  be  overlooked 
and  forgotten.  The  same  feeling  continued 
after  the  accession  of  President  Sharpless,  and 
continues  to  this  day.  At  the  time  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  semi-centennial  of  Haverford, 
as  president  of  Swarthmore  I  was  invited  to 
attend  and  make  one  of  the  addresses.  I  trust 
that,  if  I  should  be  living  at  the  time  of  the 
first  semi-centennial  of  Swarthmore,  in  1919, 
I  shall  see,  at  that  celebration,  the  president 
of  Haverford  College,  and  that  he  will  be  spe- 
cially invited  to  take  part  in  the  exercises. 
These  two  leading  colleges  of  the  two  branches 
of  our  Society  have  done  much,  in  my  opinion, 
toward  the  restoration  of  the  harmony  which 
was  so  sadly  broken  by  the  separation  of  1827. 


164  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

They  have  both  been  established  since  that  un- 
happy early  day,  and  if  they  had  both  existed 
at  that  time,  I  beheve  that  I  make  no  mistake 
in  saying  that  the  separation  would  never  have 
occurred. 

I  must  mention  another  of  our  early  profes- 
sors whom  President  Parrish  was  the  means 
of  securing  for  Swarthmore,  not  by  his  direct 
influence  but  by  referring  me  to  him.  Speak- 
ing, as  he  often  did,  of  the  importance  of 
having  handwork  introduced  early  as  a  part 
of  our  curriculum,  he  told  me  that  a  certain 
recent  graduate  of  the  Eensselaer  Polytechnic 
Institute  was  the  man  to  secure  for  this  de- 
partment. In  our  early  financial  condition, 
however,  we  were  not  able  to  offer  this  young 
man  a  salary  that  would  secure  his  services. 
About  that  time  he  found  a  satisfactory 
opening  in  the  University  of  Minnesota,  at 
Minneapolis,  then  a  new  and  rising  institution, 
and  there  he  made  a  successful  beginning,  of 
a  department  of  civil  engineering.  But  after 
some  two  or  three  years'  service  at  Minnesota, 
there  was  such  a  lack  of  harmonious  action 
among  the  members  of  the  faculty  that  he  felt 
inclined  to  resign.  On  hearing  of  this,  and 
remembering   President    Parrish's   favorable 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    165 

report  of  him,  I  opened  communication  with 
this  young  man,  through  a  member  of  our 
board,  in  reference  to  a  proposed  department 
at  Swarthmore  similar  to  the  one  in  which  he 
was  engaged  in  Minneapolis.  It  was  not  long 
before  we  came  to  satisfactory  terms,  and  this 
was  the  beginning  of  the  work  of  Professor 
Arthur  Beardsley  at  Swarthmore. 

At  that  time  we  had  no  college  buildings 
but  the  one  since  called  Parrish  Hall  and  a 
wooden  structure  to  the  north  of  it  called 
a  gymnasium  and  built  of  wood.  To  make  a 
place  for  the  training  in  practical  shop-work, 
a  part  of  this  gymnasium  was  divided  off,  and 
there  for  a  few  years  the  work  of  Professor 
Beardsley  was  carried  on.  As  President  Par- 
rish had  early  predicted,  this  department  was 
soon  so  popular  that  the  space  devoted  to  it  be- 
came wholly  inadequate.  Professor  Beardsley 
was  therefore  constantly  urging  the  erection  of 
a  new  building  to  accommodate  the  subjects 
of  Physics,  Chemistry,  and  Engineering.  It 
was  not  many  years  before  he  induced  Samuel 
WiUets,  the  president  of  our  board,  and  Jo- 
seph Wharton,  to  unite  in  giving  a  sum  large 
enough  to  erect  and  equip  what  was  called  the 
Science  Building.    This  building  served  the 


166  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

purpose  for  a  number  of  years ;  recently,  to 
give  the  needed  added  room,  the  subject  of 
Chemistry  has  been  assigned  to  a  new  build- 
ing erected  between  the  Science  Building  and 
the  Meeting-house. 

Soon  after  his  graduation,  Professor  Beards- 
ley  had  taken  an  important  part  in  superintend- 
ing the  construction  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  the 
first  tunnel  of  magnitude  built  in  this  country. 
The  work  upon  this  first  great  tunnel  was  di- 
rected in  so  skillful  a  manner  that  (which  was 
then  a  great  wonder)  two  companies  of  labor- 
ers in  two  tunnels,  starting  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  mountain,  nearly  five  miles  apart,  came 
together  in  the  middle,  under  the  mountain, 
with  but  a  fraction  of  an  inch  in  variation. 
Much  success  has  attended  Professor  Beardsley 
throughout  his  career  at  Swarthmore,  but, 
most  unfortunately  for  the  college,  his  eye- 
sight gradually  failed  him,  and  his  superior 
work  was  forever  at  an  end.  At  various  times 
during  his  career  as  head  of  the  department 
of  engineering  he  has  been  offered  elsewhere 
very  considerable  advances  over  what  Swarth- 
more could  afford  to  pay  him,  but  his  love 
for  the  college  and  its  work  impelled  him  to 
decline  these  offers.    He  has  remained  a  most 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    167 

valuable  member  of  our  faculty.  Aided  by 
one  of  his  daughters,  he  has  the  care  of  the 
Friends'  Historical  Library,  which  now  con- 
tains several  thousand  volumes,  all  Friends' 
books,  collected  largely  by  his  constant  care 
and  solicitation.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is 
no  more  complete  collection  of  books  written 
and  published  by  Friends  anywhere  in  this 
country,  and  with  one  exception  not  in  all 
the  world,  than  the  collection  made  and  care- 
fully guarded  by  Professor  Beardsley  in  the 
Friends'  Historical  Library  at  Swarthmore. 

Another  of  our  professors  in  the  early  years 
has  been  so  closely  connected  with  the  work 
of  my  life  as  to  require  special  mention.  Dur- 
ing the  years  spent  in  Providence,  Khode  Is- 
land, after  my  graduation  in  Brown  in  1852, 
there  came  into  my  class-room  early  one  morn- 
ing, to  become  my  pupils,  two  boys  of  thirteen 
and  fifteen.  One  of  the  first  questions  asked 
by  the  elder  was  whether  the  books  on  the 
open  corner  shelves  of  the  small  library  were 
mine,  or  whether  they  belonged  to  the  school. 
I  told  him  that  most  of  them  belonged  to  the 
school,  but  that  all  were  there  for  the  use  of 
my  class  whenever  they  wished  to  refer  to 
them.    With  this  answer  the  bright  boy  seemed 


168  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

much  pleased,  and  in  the  recesses  and  after 
school  he  was  of  tener  near  that  corner  Hbrary, 
poring  over  the  books,  than  in  the  yard  play- 
ing with  his  classmates.  His  studious  habits 
were  conspicuous  from  the  first,  and  before 
I  left  the  school  the  results  of  these  habits 
were  apparent.  He  ultimately  entered  Har- 
vard College,  while  his  younger  brother  went 
to  Brown  University.  In  Harvard  this  elder 
brother  was  very  successful  in  his  studies. 
He  was  especially  fond  of  Greek,  and  in 
his  Junior  year  received  the  Bowdoin  Prize 
offered  in  that  department.  After  graduation, 
and  a  brief  experience  as  teacher  in  Boston, 
he  received  an  appointment  at  Harvard  as 
tutor  in  Greek,  and  served  the  college  in  this 
capacity  for  two  years.  At  the  end  of  this 
period  he  went  abroad,  where  he  spent  two 
years,  chiefly  at  the  imiversities  of  Berlin  and 
Bonn.  Meanwhile  we  had  quite  lost  sight  of 
each  other. 

A  few  years  after  the  opening  of  Swarth- 
more,  in  arranging  for  the  coming  year,  I 
desired  to  secure  a  good  teacher.  In  those 
early  days  the  college  could  not  pay  for  pro- 
fessors in  every  department,  and  the  condi- 
tions required  the  combination  of  Greek  and 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    169 

German  under  one  professor.  I  concluded 
that,  as  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Philolo- 
gical Association,  which  I  had  taken  part  in 
organizing  at  Poughkeepsie  a  few  years  be- 
fore, was  to  be  held  in  Providence  that  year, 
I  would  attend  the  meeting  for  the  special 
purpose  of  learning  there  of  a  suitable  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  and  German.  After  a  night 
upon  the  Sound,  on  entering  the  train  after 
leaving  the  boat,  to  my  great  surprise  and 
pleasure,  I  met  the  young  man  whom  I  had 
known  several  years  before  in  the  Providence 
High  School.  When  I  told  him  of  my  spe- 
cial mission  in  attending  the  meeting  of  the 
Philological  Association  in  Providence,  he 
immediately  said  that  he  had  just  passed  two 
years  abroad  in  studying  the  very  languages 
I  wanted,  Greek  and  German,  and  before  we 
reached  Providence  the  engagement  was  com- 
pleted which  resulted  in  giving  to  Swarth- 
more  one  of  its  strongest  men.  His  refined 
and  scholarly  influence  is  still  felt  at  Swarth- 
more,  where  he  is  engaged  in  teaching  Greek. 
This  man  is  William  Hyde  Appleton,  whose 
culture,  superior  scholarship,  and  charming 
personality  have  greatly  endeared  him  to 
his  pupils  and  colleagues. 


170  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

I  must  add  here,  by  way  of  anticipation, 
that  when  I  retired  from  the  presidency  of 
Swarthmore,  I  could  not  feel  satisfied  to  do  so 
until  I  had  some  one  in  mind  to  fill  my  place. 
The  simplest  way  to  do  this  seemed  to  be  to 
induce  Professor  Appleton  to  take  my  place, 
and  give  me  the  desired  opportunity  for  a 
year's  study  abroad,  before  entering  upon  the 
professorship  of  French.  After  some  urging 
he  consented  to  be  acting  president  for  the 
year  of  my  absence.  His  duties  as  professor 
were  so  attractive  that  he  reluctantly  con- 
sented to  act,  and  only  because  I,  his  good 
friend,  so  much  desired  it.  On  my  return  to 
the  French  professorship,  a  year  later,  the 
board  strongly  urged  Professor  Appleton  to 
accept  the  position  of  president,  which  he 
finally  did,  with  the  understanding  that  he 
should  be  relieved  of  the  office  as  soon  as  a 
successor  could  be  found.  This  successor  was 
found  at  the  end  of  another  year,  in  Charles 
De  Garmo. 

The  department  of  pure  mathematics  being 
one  of  great  importance  in  the  eyes  of  Friends, 
it  was  the  desire  of  President  Parrish  to  secure 
a  head  for  this  department  who  would  so  di- 
rect it  from  the  beginning  as  to  insure  perfect 


EARLY  PROFESSORS   OF  SWARTHMORE    171 

success.  A  young  woman,  who  knew  of  the 
opening  of  a  college  by  Friends,  applied  to 
President  Parrish  for  the  position  of  teacher 
of  mathematics.  She  had  gone  to  Vassar 
College,  and  placed  herself  there  under  the 
able  instruction  of  Professor  Maria  Mitchell. 
Later,  as  I  was  about  to  take  charge  of  the 
preparatory  school,  in  which  most  of  her  teach- 
ing would  be  done.  President  Parrish  advised 
me  to  visit  Vassar  and  interview  Professor 
Mitchell  as  to  the  capacity  of  this  young  wo- 
man. I  was  well  satisfied,  on  making  this  visit, 
and  she  was  accordingly  engaged.  This  young 
woman  was  Susan  J.  Cunningham. 

When  the  time  for  the  opening  came,  in 
the  fall  of  1869,  she  was  one  of  the  first  to 
present  herself  on  the  ground.  The  main 
building  being  then  in  an  unfinished  state, 
sleeping  accommodations  could  not  be  ob- 
tained at  the  college,  so  she  went  each  night 
to  West  Chester,  returning  in  the  morning. 
Being  on  the  ground  before  the  arrival  of 
the  first  students,  she  was  ready  and  willing 
to  do  any  of  the  preliminary  work,  and  made 
herself  very  useful  in  that  busy  and  anxious 
season.  She  showed  thus  early  her  willing- 
ness to  work,  in  season  and  out  of  season, 


172  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  she  has  continued  to  show  this  disposi- 
tion in  her  class-room.  Not  only  has  she  taken 
all  the  class-room  work  that  her  programme 
called  for,  but  she  has  filled  many  vacant 
hours  with  work  for  backward  students,  with 
a  patience  and  perseverance  that  have  been 
truly  remarkable.  When  the  time  came  for 
the  building  of  an  observatory,  she  collected 
over  seven  thousand  dollars,  and  gave  from 
her  own  purse  nearly  four  hundred  dollars 
to  the  project;  later  she  gave  one  thousand 
dollars  toward  the  endowment  of  the  chair  of 
Mathematics.  Professor  Cunningham  built  a 
house  on  the  college  grounds  under  the  con- 
tract that  she  should  keep  it  in  order  while 
she  lived  in  it;  when  she  leaves  the  college 
she  leaves  the  house,  and  receives  then  from 
the  college  two  hundred  dollars  a  year  during 
the  rest  of  her  hfe;  at  her  death  it  becomes 
college  property.  The  building  of  this  house 
cost  her  four  thousand  dollars. 

Professor  Cunningham  also  gave  two  hun- 
dred dollars  to  aid  in  the  erection  of  Somerville 
Hall.  On  the  opening  day  of  that  hall  she 
was  appointed  to  represent  the  honorary  mem- 
bers of  the  Somerville  Society,  and  made  an 
opening  address  in  their  behalf.    On  that  oc- 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    173 

casion  she  said  that  a  face  and  form  rose  be- 
fore her  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others  —  the 
face  and  form  of  Lucretia  Mott.  She  con- 
tinued :  "  I  remember  Lucretia  Mott  so  well 
when  she  last  met  with  you  on  an  occasion 
like  this,  so  frail  in  body,  but  with  a  face  so 
angelic  in  expression  that  we  felt  then  that 
she  was  giving  us  her  last  service  and  counsel. 
I  remember,  too,  what  a  noble  woman  she 
was,  how  she  labored  and  spoke  always  for 
the  downtrodden  and  oppressed,  for  the  equal 
rights  of  men  and  women,  and  for  all  good 
works;  and  I  said  to  myself,  ^Your  society 
has  done  itself  honor  by  naming  the  society 
and  this  beautiful  building  after  a  rare  woman, 
Mary  Somerville,  who  worked  in  one  intel- 
lectual direction.  Why  could  not  the  life, 
associate,  and  honorary  members  found  today 
a  fellowship  honored  by  the  name  of  Lu- 
cretia Mott,  a  fellowship  by  means  of  which 
one  woman-member  of  our  graduating  class 
could  go  to  some  university,  either  in  this 
country  or  abroad,  and  devote  a  year  to  ad- 
vanced study,  so  that  these  two  names  —  Mary 
Somerville  and  Lucretia  Mott  —  may  live  to 
the  students  of  Swarthmore  as  long  as  your 
society  stands?'"    She   then    reviewed   the 


174  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

scholarships  and  fellowships  given  at  other 
colleges  for  women ;  after  this  she  proposed 
that  all  the  life  members  of  the  Somerville 
Society  should  pay  a  small  sum  annually,  thus 
making  up  a  purse  of  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars,  to  be  awarded  each  year  to  the 
woman  of  the  graduating  class  who  should  be 
the  most  worthy  to  be  aided  in  advanced  work. 
It  was  thus,  at  the  suggestion  of  Professor 
Cunningham,  that  the  Somerville  Literary 
Society  founded  the  Lucretia  Mott  fellowship, 
which  is  a  fitting  memorial  to  a  most  noble 
woman. 

Professor  Cunningham  was  never  satisfied 
with  mediocre  scholarship,  either  for  herself 
or  for  her  students.  To  advance  herself  in 
her  profession  she  has  spent  in  study  abroad 
many  of  her  vacations ;  she  has  also  worked 
in  the  observatories  at  Harvard,  Princeton, 
^y  Chicago,  and  in  California.  When  President 
Swain  agreed  to  come  to  Swarthmore  on  con- 
dition that  the  endowment  should  be  raised 
from  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  one 
million  dollars,  —  which  has  since  been  done, 
—  she  subscribed  fifteen  hundred  dollars  to- 
ward that  increase,  and  paid  fourteen  hundred 
of  it  herself,  a  friend  and  former  student  pay- 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    175 

ing  the  remaining  one  hundred  dollars.  For 
ten  years  she  maintained  one  student  at  the 
college,  besides  obtaining  money  towards  the 
tuition  of  from  one  to  three  others  each  year 
for  many  years.  I  must  repeat  in  this  con- 
nection what  I  have  said  before,  that  the  time 
will  come  when  women  will  receive  salaries 
equal  to  those  of  men  when  they  perform 
equally  well  the  same  services.  It  should  be 
so,  and  Swarthmore  would  do  well  to  take  the 
lead  of  our  American  colleges  in  granting  to 
this  extent  equal  rights  to  women  and  men. 
At  my  time  of  life  I  can  hardly  hope  to  see 
this  result,  but  it  is  sure  to  come. 

When  we  began  work  late  in  the  autumn 
of  1869,  besides  the  matron  (later  called  dean), 
Helen  G.  Longstreth,  there  was  but  one  other 
woman  in  our  faculty  of  five.  This  was  Anna 
Hallo  well,  whose  health  unfortunately  was  soon 
after  found  to  be  insufficient  for  the  work  re- 
quired ;  her  place  was  taken  by  her  brother, 
Norwood  Hallowell.  He  was  with  us  for  only 
a  brief  period,  and  the  work  in  history  and 
literature  was  intrusted,  in  February,  1870,  to 
Maria  L.  Sanford,  who  was  made  a  member  of 
the  faculty.  She  had  come  from  New  England 
a  few  years  before  this,  and  had  been  very 


176  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

successful  as  superintendent  of  the  public 
schools  in  a  neighboring  county.  Hearing  of 
the  vacancy  at  Swarthmore,  she  made  applica- 
tion for  the  position.  Her  excellent  work  and 
her  enthusiasm  in  her  profession  were  well 
known  to  Clement  Biddle,  of  Chadd's  Ford, 
Pennsylvania,  and  through  him,  as  chairman 
of  our  instruction  committee,  the  appointment 
was  made.  Her  zeal  in  her  work  knew  no 
bounds,  and  she  proved  a  most  inspiring 
teacher.  At  that  time  history  had  not  been 
given  the  place  which  its  great  importance 
demands.  About  twenty  years  before,  when  I 
was  a  student  in  Yale,  it  was  considered  as  a 
secondary  study  in  the  curriculum,  small  place 
being  left  for  it  by  the  great  trio,  Latin,  Greek, 
and  mathematics.  I  learned  soon  after,  under 
Dr.  Wayland,  the  mistake  of  such  an  arrange- 
ment. It  was  in  this,  as  in  other  ways,  that  my 
course  at  Brown  had  taught  me  to  vary  ma- 
terially at  Swarthmore  from  the  old  regime. 

In  that  day  Swarthmore  was  too  poor  to 
have  a  separate  professor  for  each  important 
study,  and  the  proper  duties  of  several  pro- 
fessors were  sometimes  intrusted  to  one.  In 
the  case  of  Professor  Sanford,  history  and  lit- 
erature were  confided  to  her  care.    These  she 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    177 

very  ingeniously  combined,  making  one  tell 
upon  the  other,  as  she  trained  the  students  in 
literature  by  requiring  long  essays  on  histor- 
ical subjects;  in  her  zeal  she  was  often  in 
danger  of  encroaching  upon  the  time  due  other 
departments.  While  thus  getting  a  good  deal 
of  work  from  her  classes,  she  never  spared 
herself.  Her  lectures,  on  history  especially, 
gave  her  a  reputation,  and  she  was  invited  to 
give  lectures,  and  sometimes  short  courses, 
elsewhere.  These  invitations  she  often  ac- 
cepted, and  in  doing  so  was  not  always  care- 
ful to  secure  in  advance  the  consent  of  the 
instruction  committee.  As  a  result  she  gave 
dissatisfaction  to  this  committee,  and  decided 
at  length  to  send  in  her  resignation,  which 
was  accepted.  She  was  not  long  in  securing 
another  position,  in  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota, where,  under  President  Folwell,  she  took 
the  chair  of  elocution  and  history.  There  her 
public  lectures  have  been  regarded  as  a  great 
advantage  to  the  university,  and  for  many 
years  she  was  the  only  woman  on  their  faculty. 
Obviously,  her  work  has  been  very  satisfactory 
in  Minnesota,  for  she  is  still  very  popular  there. 
If  she  had  remained  at  Swarthmore,  I  cannot 
doubt  that  her  work  with  us  would  eventually 


178  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

have  been  as  satisfactory  as  it  is  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota.- 

Before  concluding  this  chapter  on  some  of 
the  early  professors  of  Swarthmore,  I  feel  that 
it  vrill  be  in  place  to  give  some  impressions  of 
those  early  years  left  upon  the  mind  of  a  stu- 
dent, Phebe  A.  Field,  who  came  to  us  among 
those  best  prepared,  but  who  was  called  away 
at  the  end  of  her  Sophomore  year.  Various 
causes  combined  to  decimate  our  ranks  and 
diminish  the  size  of  our  graduating  classes  in 
those  days.  But  I  permit  her  to  speak  for  her- 
self. 

^^My  days  at  Swarthmore  ended  with  my 
Sophomore  year.  I  passed  the  examinations 
for  the  Junior  class,  but  the  feeble  health  of 
my  mother  made  it  best  for  me  to  return  home^ 
although  I  shall  never  forget  thy  kindness,  and 
that  of  Samuel  Willets,  nor  the  temptation 
that  I  felt  to  go  on ;  but  I  have  found  a  satis- 
faction in  being  with  my  parents  in  their  later 
years. 

"  I  remember,  very  distinctly,  Professor 
Goldwin  Smith  being  at  Swarthmore.  It  was 
a  great  pleasure  at  Toronto  last  summer  to 
look  upon  him  and  to  Hsten  to  his  voice  again 
after  the  lapse  of  years.   I  regretted  that  my 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    179 

illness  at  the  time  of  Maria  Mitchell's  visit  to 
Swarthmore  prevented  me  from  hearing  her 
learned  discourse  on  the  ^  Spots  on  the  Sun.' 

"  Lucretia  Mott  gave  us  most  beautiful  coun- 
sel on  First-day  morning  in  Meeting  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Fourth  Month,  1871.  I  had 
never  heard  her  speak  so  well,  and  many  of 
us  felt  that  in  all  probability  we  should  never 
have  the  privilege  of  listening  to  her  again. 

"Clarkson  Taylor  exhibited  some  very  fine 
stereoscopic  views  of  California,  and  gave  an 
interesting  description  of  the  scenery.  Thomas 
Foulke,  of  New  York,  gave  his  lecture  on  the 
Yosemite  Valley  about  Third  Month  of  the 
previous  year. 

*^Hugh  Foulke  also  addressed  us,  and  I  re- 
member f  eehng  surprised  that  he  spoke  so  well. 
He  was  a  very  modest  and  unassuming  man, 
and  few  understood  his  real  worth. 

"  I  also  remember  Miller  McKim.  His  ear- 
nest address  made  a  deep  and  lasting  impres- 
sion. Best  of  all  was  Dr.  Thomas,  and  his 
recollections  of  India.  I  never  forgot  his  de- 
scription of  the  rhododendrons  on  the  sides 
of  the  Himalaya  mountains.  Perhaps  they 
appeared  to  him  clothed  with  more  than  ordi- 
nary beauty,  as  they  were  a  place  of  refuge 


180  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  peace  during  the  horrors  of  the  terrible 
Sepoy  rebellion. 

'^  Many  things  in  that  early  day  were  crude, 
I  know;  and  I  remember  thy  dismay  at  the 
irregularity  of  our  Freshman  class.  But  we 
were  willing  to  work,  and  tried  to  make  up 
some  of  our  deficiencies." 

I  must  add  that  we  rejoiced  in  the  spirit 
shown  by  this  class,  and  in  the  success  of  the 
few  who  remained  with  us  until  their  gradua- 
tion in  1873. 

I  have  spoken,  in  chapter  vii,  of  our  con- 
nection with  the  Church  of  the  Disciples,  of 
which  James  Freeman  Clarke  was  the  hon- 
ored head  and  founder,  and  where  our  eldest 
daughters  were  trained  in  the  Sunday-school. 
Our  membership  in  that  liberal  church  brought 
us  in  touch  with  many  noble  men  and  women ; 
among  them  John  A.  Andrew,  our  war  gov- 
ernor, and  in  an  especial  manner  with  Julia 
Ward  Howe.  The  governor  sent  a  kind  mes- 
sage to  those  having  charge  of  the  dead  who 
fell  first,  in  Baltimore,  in  our  sad  war  of  the 
EebeUion,  "  to  send  their  bodies  home  tenderly 
for  interment."  With  Julia  Ward  Howe  we 
became  connected,  entertaining  as  we  did  views 
in  so  many  ways  similar   to  hers.   In  those 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    181 

early  days  of  the  war  she  visited  Washington, 
and  after  her  return  she  presented  in  MS.,  and 
read  to  us  in  the  mid-week  vestry  meeting,  her 
lines  now  so  well  known  as  the  "  Battle-Hymn 
of  the  Republic."  Desiring  to  hear  as  to  her 
addresses  at  Swarthmore  College  in  its  early 
years,  I  addressed  her  a  note  and  have  just 
received  from  her  summer  home  in  Newport 
the  following  reply,  which  will,  I  am  sure,  be 
read  with  interest  by  our  early  students,  and 
by  all  friends  of  the  college,  far  and  near. 
She  writes :  — 

Dear  Mr.  Magill, — I  should  be  very  un- 
grateful if  I  did  not  well  remember  your  hos- 
pitality, by  which  I  have  profited  more  than 
once.  I  send  you  with  this  a  printed  copy  of 
my  battle-hymn,  which  gives  it  exactly  as  first 
printed.  I  remember  giving  my  lecture  on 
Paris  at  Swarthmore.  I  think  that  I  spoke 
there  twice  while  you  were  in  the  chair,  but 
am  not  quite  sure.  I  remember  with  pleasure 
visiting  the  great  Exposition  of  1876  in  your 
company  and  that  of  your  wife. 

Believe  me,  yours  with  kind  and  grateful 
remembrance, 

Julia  Ward  Howe. 


182  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

I  believe  that  It  will  be  of  interest  to  my 
readers  to  see  the  copy  of  the  Battle-Hymn 
"  exactly  as  first  printed/'  and  they  can  com- 
pare it  with  some  of  the  later  forms,  as  modi- 
fied by  the  soldiers,  to  suit  their  own  purposes. 
It  is  as  follows,  printed  as  Mrs.  Howe  first 
showed  it  to  us :  — 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  : 
He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of  wrath 

are  stored; 
He  hath  loosed  the  fateful  lightning  of  his  terrible  swift 

sword: 

His  truth  is  marching  on. 

I  have  seen  Him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling 

camps ; 
They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  evening  dews  and 

damps; 
I  can  read  his  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and  flaring 

lamps. 

His  day  is  marching  on. 

I  have  read  a  fiery  gospel,  writ  in  burnished  rows  of  steel: 
"  As  ye  deal  with  my  contemners  so  with  you  my  grace 

shall  deal; 
Let  the  Hero,  born  of  woman,  crush  the  serpent  with  his 

heel, 

Since  God  is  marching  on." 

He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never  call 
retreat; 

He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  his  judgment- 
seat: 


« 


EARLY  PROFESSORS  OF  SWARTHMORE    183 

Oh  1  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him!  be  jubilant,  my  feet! 
Our  God  is  marching  on. 

In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
With  a  glory  in  his  bosom  that  transfigures  you  and  me: 
As  he  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free, 
While  God  is  marching  on. 

Mrs.  Howe  published  a  few  years  ago  a 
most  remarkable  volume  of  "  Reminiscences," 
covering  a  period  of  eighty  years,  1819-99, 
in  which  volume  all  that  I  have  said  of  her 
as  a  member  of  our  Church  of  the  Disciples, 
under  the  ministry  of  that  sweet-spirited  and 
liberal  minister,  James  Freeman  Clarke,  is 
fully  confirmed.  This  volume,  published  by 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  is  truly  a  record  of  a 
long  and  most  useful  life,  and  should  be  found 
in  every  public  library  of  our  country.  Her 
facile  pen  is  busy,  at  her  home  at  Newport  in 
the  summer  and  on  Beacon  Street  in  Boston 
in  the  winter,  and  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven 
she  is  so  much  occupied  in  writing  that  she 
says  in  a  recent  letter  that  she  is  engaged  on 
"  time  work."  Surely  she  is  likely  to  add  much 
of  great  interest  and  value  for  an  equally  in- 
teresting post  mortem  volume,  if  indeed  she 
be  not  spared,  as  we  hope,  to  issue  it  in  her 
own  lifetime.    Her  long  life  has  been  full  of 


184  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

work  of  various  kinds  for  the  betterment  of  the 
world,  and  the  general  progress  of  mankind, 
and  especially  for  the  equal  rights  of  the  sexes, 
of  which  she  is,  to-day,  the  most  able  living 
advocate,  at  least  among  those  who  write  the 
English  language. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PRESIDENT   OF   SWARTHMORE    COLLEGE 

1871-1890  i^^ 

AFTER  the  resignation  of  President  Par- 
rish,  I  was  left  for  some  time  in  charge 
of  both  the  college  and  the  preparatory  school. 
It  became  obvious  to  me  that  the  separate 
organizations  could  not  be  successfully  main- 
tained for  many  years  under  one  roof.  While 
accepting  the  situation  as  inevitable  at  the 
time,  I  did  so  with  the  fixed  intention,  when 
conditions  should  permit,  to  have  the  school 
and  college  conducted  as  separate  institutions. 
Toward  that  end  my  labors  were  directed  from 
the  first.  There  being  at  that  time  in  the  col- 
lege proper  only  two  small  classes,  the  Sopho- 
more and  the  Freshman,  it  was  clear  that  the 
separation,  however  desirable,  would  be  pre- 
mature. Before  this  could  be  safely  done,  the 
four  regular  college  classes  must  at  least  be 
organized  and  at  their  work.  That  the  college 
must  be  self-sustaining  was  a  thought  ever 


186  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

prominent  in  the  minds  of  the  managers,  a 
thought  which  arose  from  their  lack  of  experi- 
ence In  college  management.  In  my  annual 
report  to  the  managers  I  repeated  year  after 
year  that  as  a  college  gave  to  the  public  much 
more  than  it  received  from  the  public  in  re- 
turn, it  could  not  be  expected  to  be  seK-sus- 
taining.  In  the  report  made  by  the  managers 
to  the  stockholders,  which  was  based  upon  my 
report,  this  thought  was  as  regularly  eliminated 
from  year  to  year.  Now,  at  last,  after  years 
of  labor,  the  fact  is  fully  understood  and  ap- 
preciated by  the  board. 
%/  Of   course,   under  the  circumstances,   the 

number  of  students  secured  each  year  was  a 
matter  of  the  first  importance,  and  very  few 
^  of  those  presenting  themselves  were  rejected, 
however  poorly  qualified.  Those  not  prepared 
for  the  Freshman  class  could  enter  the  prepara- 
tory school.  In  that  school  there  were  some- 
times, besides  the  three  classes.  A,  B,  and  C, 
subdivisions  of  those  classes,  making  from  six 
to  nine  preparatory  classes,  and  in  the  lowest 
of  these  almost  any  applicant  could  be  placed, 
if  not  prepared  to  go  higher.  Sometimes  stu- 
dents in  these  lower  classes  failed  of  promotion, 
and  appeared  in  the  same  class  the  following 


EDWARD   H.   MAGILL 
Professor  Emeritus,  in  1901 


( 


OF  / 


CALM 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE  :  1871-90    187 

year.  The  time  came  at  last,  in  the  class  that 
entered  in  1881,  or  twelve  years  after  the 
opening,  when  we  felt  that  we  must  make  the 
college  classes  one  grade  higher.  This  was 
done  by  not  admitting  class  A  to  the  Fresh- 
man class,  but  keeping  all  the  class  back  a 
year.  The  result  was  that  only  four  of  the 
best  were  passed  on  as  Freshmen,  and  thus  it 
was  that  in  1886  we  graduated  but  four, — 
the  smallest  class  ever  graduated  at  the  college. 
This  attempt  to  raise  the  grade  of  the  college, 
although  felt  by  the  faculty  to  be  a  necessity, 
caused  much  dissatisfaction  among  some  of 
the  active  managers.  But  the  faculty  stood 
firm,  and  time  has  fully  justified  their  action. 
Connected  with  the  desire  on  the  part  of 
several  of  our  most  active  managers  to  keep 
permanently,  as  a  part  of  the  college,  a  school 
for  small  children,  was  the  idea  that  we  should 
make  Swarthmore  essentially  a  training-school 
for  teachers,  and  use  the  youngest  classes  as 
a  species  of  model  school.  This  thought  was 
earnestly  urged  upon  the  board  by  a  few  man- 
agers, the  plan  was  actually  adopted,  and  we, 
as  a  faculty,  were  directed  to  carry  it  out.  To 
make  this  model  school  attractive,  one  of  the 
largest  class-rooms  was  set  aside,  and  the  floor 


188  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

was  nicely  carpeted,  not  merely  stained  or 
painted,  as  was  that  of  the  other  rooms.  No- 
tices were  sent  out  to  the  general  public  dur- 
ing the  summer  vacation.  With  a  few  of  the 
faculty,  I  was  expected  to  make  these  invita- 
tions and  arrangements  our  especial  care  ;  and 
not  even  a  week's  intermission  or  rest  did  we 
enjoy  that  summer.  Finding  it  inevitable,  I 
entered  into  the  scheme  as  heartily  as  possible, 
and  when  September  came  we  had  a  largely 
increased  list  of  applicants  for  the  coming  year. 
The  woman  employed  to  teach  this  model 
school  had  had  considerable  experience  of  a 
,  similar  kind  elsewhere,  and  that  autumn  saw 
Swarthmore  with  a  largely  increased  number 
of  students,  many  of  them  intending  to  teach 
after  a  year's  training,  and  ready  to  go  out  as 
substitutes  even  during  that  one  year.  There 
was  also  an  increase  in  the  number  of  little 
J  children  upon  whom,  poor  innocents,  the  ex- 
periment of  "  normalizing  "  Swarthmore  was 
to  be  tried.  I  did  as  directed  by  the  managers 
who  were  especially  interested  in  this  work, 
but  from  the  first  I  felt  that  the  year  would 
be  a  lost  year  in  the  development  of  Swarth- 
more College.  Of  course,  little  attention  was 
paid  to  the  fitness  of  applicants  if  they  reported 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    189 

that  they  came  for  study  and  practice  in  the 
normal  department.  Children,  too,  were  freely 
received  with  less  than  the  usual  amount  of 
schooling  to  enter  class  C,  for  they  would  make 
good  subjects  for  experiment  in  the  model 
school. 

During  that  year  I  made  it  my  business  to 
see  how  the  normal  department  was  doing  its 
work,  and  in  the  matter  of  my  personal  atten- 
tion to  other  departments  of  the  college  I 
necessarily  fell  short  of  that  given  in  other 
years.  Previously  I  had  made  it  a  rule,  to  be 
followed  as  closely  as  possible,  to  see  every 
teacher's  and  every  professor's  work  at  least 
a  few  minutes  every  working  day.  This  year 
that  rule  was  frequently  and  necessarily  dis- 
regarded. As  the  last  term  drew  near  its  close, 
I  felt  that  I  must  draw  up  and  present  to  the 
board  a  full  statement  describing  the  organ- 
ization of  the  normal  department,  its  effect 
in  lowering  the  standard  of  new  applicants, 
its  disastrous  effect  on  the  small  children  who 
were  experimented  upon,  and  the  standing  of  v/ 
Swarthmore  among  the  other  colleges  of  our 
state  and  country.  I  closed  by  earnestly  urg- 
ing the  board  to  return  to  the  idea  of  a  col- 
lege as  a  college  3  and  to  fill  up,  as  fast  as 


tV 


190  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

possible,  the  college  classes  with  well-prepared 
students;  to  stand  firm  against  admitting 
children  under  twelve  years  of  age ;  to  raise 
the  age  of  admission  as  soon  as  practicable, 
and  to  encourage  the  establishment,  in  our 
neighborhood,  of  a  good  preparatory  school, 
not  under  the  care  of  our  board.  Such  a 
school,  I  urged,  would  enable  parents  who 
sent  their  older  children  to  the  college  to 
bring  with  them,  and  place  near  us,  in  an  en- 
tirely separate  institution,  their  younger  chil- 
dren, to  enter  college  when  they  were  pro- 
perly prepared.  I  put  my  whole  heart  and  soul 
into  this  report  on  that  disastrous  normal 
school  experiment,  and,  to  my  great  relief, 
the  report  was  very  kindly  received  by  the 
managers.  Their  action  soon  showed  plainly 
that  the  short  reign  of  normal  school  {versus 
college)  was  gone  forever.  I  should  add  that 
the  excellent  preparatory  school  directed  by 
Arthur  H.  Tomlinson  is  now  a  realization  of 
what  my  report  then  called  for.  This  school, 
together  with  the  well-managed  system  of  pub- 
lic schools  in  the  town  (some  of  the  school 
directors  being  professors  in  the  college),  has 
now  placed  the  college  upon  a  more  solid  foun- 
dation. 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    191 

During  the  presidency  of  Edward  Parrish 
I  had  little  if  any  direct  communication  with 
the  board.  When,  some  months  after  his  re- 
signation, I  was  appointed  president  early  in 
1871,  I  came  into  direct  relations  with  that 
body,  and  it  seems  proper,  at  this  time,  to 
give  some  account  of  their  organization  and 
methods  of  management.  While  the  man- 
agers were  a  body  directly  responsible  to  the 
stockholders,  and  appointed  all  the  ofl&cers  of 
the  college,  the  faculty  naturally  decided  as 
to  the  courses  of  study,  the  classification  and 
promotion  of  the  students,  their  government, 
and  the  general  management  of  all  afiPairs  that 
immediately  concerned  the  life  of  the  students 
in  the  college  family.  A  close  supervision  of 
the  whole  was  maintained  by  the  board,  es? 
pecially  by  its  executive  committee,  and  a  few 
of  these,  known  as  the  weekly  committee,  vis- 
ited the  college  every  week. 

The  faculty,  instead  of  making  reports  at 
stated  periods,  sent  to  the  managers,  at  each 
meeting  of  either  the  general  board  or  the 
executive  committee,  their  minute-book.  The 
minutes  being  read  in  the  managers'  meeting, 
caused  every  act  of  the  faculty,  including  the 
details  of  management,  to  claim  the  attention 


192  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

of  the  managers.  This  had  been  a  plan  of  my 
own,  made  with  the  design  of  securing  har- 
mony between  the  two  governing  bodies.  I  am 
convinced  now  that  it  was  an  error,  and  that  a 
regular  written  report  to  each  meeting  of  the 
managers  would  have  been  more  likely  to  se- 
cure the  harmony  so  essential  to  the  well-being 
of  the  college.  It  was  sometimes  found  neces- 
sary for  the  faculty,  on  certain  occasions  of 
disorder,  either  to  remove  students  from  the 
college  permanently  or  to  suspend  them  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  period.  The  good  order  of 
the  college  seemed  to  require  this,  and  there 
were  sometimes  conflicting  views,  which  made 
the  government  of  that  mixed  body  of  college 
and  preparatory  students  exceedingly  difficult. 
The  use  of  tobacco  by  the  students,  which 
was  strictly  forbidden  in  the  college  from  the 
first,  was  one  of  these  causes  of  difference, 
but  it  was  generally  found  that  those  who 
persisted  in  its  use,  after  entering  with  a  full 
understanding  that  it  was  forbidden,  were 
undesirable  students  in  other  respects. 

The  matter  of  hazing,  especially  in  a  col- 
lege like  Swarthmore,  where  all  Hved  in  one 
home,  was  considered,  from  the  first,  as  suffi- 
cient cause  for  prompt  dismissal.    One  serious 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    193 

case  of  the  kind  occurred  early  and  was  met 
by  instant  dismissal.  This  was  for  years  taken 
as  a  precedent,  and  as  a  result  hazing  has 
rarely  been  indulged  in  since.  The  effort  was 
made,  not  without  success,  to  make  the  stu- 
dents see  how  much  their  own  comfort  was 
promoted  by  our  strict  observance  of  this 
rule. 

One  of  the  early  cases  of  discipline  was  due 
to  the  traditional  feud  between  the  Sophomore 
and  Freshmen  classes.  With  us  this  feud  as- 
sumed the  form  of  a  strife  between  the  classes 
over  the  planting  of  the  class  tree,  which  took 
place  early  in  the  Sophomore  year.  The  men 
of  the  first  Sophomore  class,  i.  e.  that  of 
'74  ('73  having  but  one  man  in  the  class),  had 
originated  the  practice,  and  the  Freshmen  of 
that  year  had  decided  to  do  their  part  by  pull- 
ing the  tree  up,  cutting  it  into  small  pieces, 
and  appearing  at  breakfast  the  next  morn- 
ing with  bits  in  their  buttonholes, — if  they 
could.  The  practice  thus  inaugurated,  the 
night  of  the  planting  of  the  Sophomore  tree 
was  the  signal  for  strife  between  Freshmen 
and  Sophomores.  The  Sophomores  watched 
their  tree  until  sunrise  the  next  morning, 
the  rule  being  that  after  the  first  night  the 


194  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Freshmen  never  disturbed  it  if  it  had  been 
successfully  defended  by  the  Sophomores  until 
sunrise.  Once  or  twice  the  Sophomores  built 
a  three-cornered  pile  of  fence-rails  very  high 
around  the  tree,  to  make  its  defense  easier. 

For  several  years  this  annual  contest  was 
continued,  and  one  night,  while  losing  my 
night's  rest  sitting  in  the  east  arbor,  watching 
for  the  hostile  movements  of  the  two  classes, 
I  decided  upon  a  plan  to  turn  this  foolish 
strife  into  a  profitable  channel.  The  next 
morning  I  had  the  two  classes  assemble,  and 
promised  them  that  if  they  would  give  up  the 
tree-pulling,  we  would  have  an  annual  decla- 
mation contest  between  the  two  classes,  and  I 
would,  personally,  present  the  victorious  class 
with  a  prize  of  fifty  dollars;  but  if  any  at- 
tempt was  made  to  continue  the  strife  about 
the  class  tree,  the  class  making  it  should  have 
no  opportunity  to  contest  for  a  prize  that  year. 
This  attempt  to  change  a  struggle  of  brute 
force  into  one  of  intellectual  supremacy  was 
a  complete  success,  and  was  the  origin  of  the 
President's  Prize  for  Public  Speaking,  which, 
in  different  forms,  has  been  given  to  the  suc- 
cessful classes  by  the  presidents  who  have  fol- 
lowed me.   I  little  knew  that  that  quiet  hour 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    195 

of  thought  at  midnight,  in  the  east  arbor  of 
the  Swarthmore  lawn,  would  prove  so  far- 
reaching  in  its  consequences. 

Among  those  who  were  often  active  in  their 
opposition  to  the  president  in  the  early  days — 
men  all  thoroughly  honest  in  their  purposes, 
and  desiring  only  the  best  interests  of  the  col- 
lege as  they  understood  them  —  I  may  men- 
tion here  Hugh  McUvain,  Edward  Hoopes, 
Clement  M.  Biddle,  Clement  Biddle,  and  Dr. 
M.  Fisher  Longstreth  —  all  of  whom  have 
now  passed  on  to  the  life  beyond,  leaving  de- 
scendants who  retain  their  deep  interest  in 
the  college.  None  of  these  will,  I  trust,  feel 
wounded  by  this  allusion  of  mine  to  the  work 
of  their  fathers,  inspired  as  these  all  were  with 
an  affection  for  the  college,  and  with  a  de- 
termination, as  far  as  in  them  lay,  to  further 
its  best  interests.  One  of  them  once  said  to 
me :  "  All  the  fault  that  we  have  to  find  with 
thee,  Edward,  is  that  thou  hast  seemed  deter- 
mined to  get  rid  of  the  younger  classes,  and 
make  of  Swarthmore  a  college  only,  without 
a  preparatory  school."  This  was  said  by  one 
who  had  been  for  several  years  chairman  of 
our  instruction  committee.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Eli  M.  Lamb,  whose  views  on  this  subject 


196  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

coincided  with  my  own,  and  by  whose  aid  and 
encouragement  I  felt  that  my  ultimate  success 
was  achieved. 

The  gradual  working  out  of  this  change 
from  a  mixed  school  and  college  to  a  college 
is  thus  graphically  set  forth  by  EH  M.  Lamb, 
in  a  report  which  he  recently  sent  me,  at  my 
request,  from  records  in  his  possession. 

NUMBER  OF  STUDENTS. 


Tear. 

Preparatory  School. 

College. 

1882-83 

192 

82 

1883-84 

216 

83 

1884-85 

158 

112 

1885-86 

112 

123 

1886-87 

117 

123 

1887-88 

85 

170 

1888-89 

82 

165 

1889-90 

80 

163 

In  the  year  1884-85  class  C  was  dropped. 
In  the  year  1889-90  class  B  was  dropped. 
In  the  year  1890-91  class  A  was  dropped. 

After  one  year  when  there  was  one  college 
preparatory  class  the  final  change  came,  and 
since  1891-92  college  students  only  have 
been  admitted.  Those  ten  years  of  struggle 
were  to  me  memorable  years.  I  quote  further 
from  the  recent  letter  of  Eli  M.  Lamb :  — 

"To  produce  this  result  required  much 
work  and  a  good  deal  of  diplomacy,  for  many 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    197 

Friends,  notably  our  good  minister,  Clement 
Biddle,  of  Chadd's  Ford,  and  his  not  small 
following,  clung  tenaciously,  and  with  very 
great  sincerity,  to  the  boarding-school  (like 
Westtown)  idea.  These  persons  were  to  us 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,  both  of  which  were 
dangerous  and  had  to  be  shunned.  After  care- 
ful steering  for  a  long  time,  the  craft  sailed 
with  rapidity  through  that  narrow  channel." 
I  feel  it  to  be  a  duty,  as  well  as  a  great  plea- 
sure, to  speak  of  the  services  of  Eli  M.  Lamb, 
who,  from  the  beginning  of  his  work  with  us 
as  a  manager,  did  everything  in  his  power  to 
bring  about  the  result  to  which  he  has  here 
referred.  Having  been  long  and  successfully 
engaged  in  the  work  of  education,  there  was 
no  one  better  qualified  than  he  to  enter  upon 
duty  as  a  manager.  In  his  position  as  chair- 
man of  the  instruction  committee  he  enabled 
me  greatly  to  simplify  my  work,  and  to  ad- 
vance toward  the  end  desired,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  board.  Although  very  closely 
occupied  with  his  well-known  successful  school, 
the  Friends'  Elementary  and  High  School  in 
Baltimore,  —  a  school  which  prepares  many 
students  for  Johns  Hopkins  University,  —  he 
was  ever  ready,  at  critical  periods,  to  leave  his 


198  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

work  at  brief  notice  and  come  to  Swarthmore 
to  offer  his  personal  counsel.  When  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  come,  he  would  send 
me  hopeful  and  encouraging  words  by  the  first 
mail.  Often  have  I  sent  for  him  in  the  after- 
noon, and  he  would  reach  the  college  that 
night  in  the  midnight  train,  once  or  twice  in 
the  midst  of  a  blinding  snowstorm.  We  con- 
ferred into  the  small  hours,  and  he  returned 
to  his  own  school  by  the  first  train  next 
morning.  In  those  days  I  kept  filed,  in  a  case 
constructed  for  the  purpose,  the  vast  number 
of  letters  which  I  received  in  connection  with 
college  affairs,  and  the  pigeonhole  labeled  L 
was  usually  full  to  overflowing.  I  am  safe  in 
saying  that  these  letters,  if  published,  would 
make  a  volume  of  no  inconsiderable  size  and 
value.^ 

One  of  my  most  firm  and  constant  friends 
among  the  managers  did  not  enter  upon  duty 
until  Twelfth  Month  (December),  1873,  a  few 

1  It  has  been  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  that  aU  of  Eli  M. 
Lamb's  daughters  received  the  advantages  of  the  full  college 
course  at  Swarthmore,  though  all  three  of  them  were  too  late 
for  me  to  have  the  pleasure  of  signing  their  diplomas  during 
my  presidency,  two  of  them  graduating  in  1894,  and  one  in 
1902.  Had  his  valuable  services  for  the  college  been  of  an 
earlier  date,  doubtless  his  two  sons  would  have  been  glad  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  same  privilege. 


r 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE:  1871-90    199 


months  after  the  graduation  of  our  first  class. 
Many  of  the  early  misunderstandings  between 
the  managers  and  myself,  as  president,  were 
then  over,  but  from  that  date  until  the  pre- 
sent hour  I  have  found  in  Isaac  H.  Clothier 
a  firm  friend  and  supporter  in  my  plans  and 
trials.  He  came  into  the  board  by  being  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  clerks  of  the  stockholders' 
meeting.  We  soon  became  very  intimate,  I 
having  long  well  known  and  highly  esteemed 
his  father,  Caleb  Clothier,  who  for  many  years 
was  one  of  the  most  active  and  esteemed 
members  of  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting  of 
Friends,  at  a  time  when  he,  with  William 
Dorsey  and  George  Truman,  were  among 
those  occupying  gallery  seats — then  a  mark 
of  more  distinction  between  the  "weighty 
members "  and  those  occupying  the  floor 
seats  than  now.  Isaac  H.  Clothier's  position 
as  clerk  of  the  stockholders'  meeting  gave 
him  a  place  as  a  member  of  the  board,  and 
his  connection  with  the  college  in  that  capa- 
city began  in  the  winter  of  1873-74.  What- 
ever changes  seemed  to  me  necessary  for  the 
good  of  the  college,  I  invariably  talked  over 
with  him  before  taking  action,  and  through 
him  I  approached  the  board  in  many  cases 


200  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

where  alone  I  should  have  hesitated  about 
doing  so.  In  those  days  he  lived  at  Sharon 
Hill,  with  Clement  M.  Biddle  on  one  side 
and  Dr.  M.  Fisher  Longs treth  on  the  other. 
It  was  a  good  horseback  ride  to  the  homes 
of  these  three  active  managers,  and  many  an 
anxious  evening  have  I  passed  with  them 
talking  over  college  affairs.  I  used  to  bring 
any  new  matter  about  which  I  felt  doubt  to 
Isaac  H.  Clothier  first;  if  he  approved,  then, 
often  on  the  same  evening  but  sometimes 
later,  I  went  to  the  others,  and  if  all  agreed, 
I  felt  confident  that  I  could  go  to  the  board 
with  every  prospect  of  success.  As  Dr.  Long- 
streth  was  a  man  quite  difficult  to  convince, 
Isaac  H.  Clothier  had  a  habit  of  saying, 
pleasantly,  that  whenever  he  wished  for  har- 
mony he  always  got  between  his  uncle  Fisher 
and  myself  and  thus  prevented  a  quarrel. 

Although  Clement  M.  Biddle  was  the  young- 
est of  us  four,  he  too  was  often  hard  to  con- 
vince, and  especially  when  we  opposed  any 
pet  theory  of  his  own.  His  death  we  all  most 
deeply  deplored ;  but  this  occurred  after  the 
days  of  my  presidency  were  over.  In  my 
year's  absence  abroad,  before  entering  upon 
the  professorship  of  French,  he  furnished  me 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    201 

•with  funds  necessary  to  buy  for  the  college  a 
number  of  French  books  which  I  desired  to 
use.  This  resulted  in  quite  an  important  addi- 
tion to  our  French  library.  He  would  often 
enter  into  an  agreement  with  alumni  or  others, 
that  if  they  would  contribute  a  certain  sum 
named  for  books  or  other  needs  of  the  college, 
he  would  add  to  the  sum  of  their  contributions 
several  hundred  dollars,  and  sometimes  even 
thousands.  By  his  sudden  death  Swarth- 
more  lost  one  of  her  earliest,  most  energetic, 
and  most  devoted  friends. 

I  much  regretted  when  the  Sharon  Hill  trio 
was  broken  up,  and  my  staunch  friend,  Isaac 
H.  Clothier,  moved  to  his  new  home,  "  Bal- 
lytore,"  at  Wynnewood.  Soon  after  that  he 
and  I  began  to  take  long  horseback  rides 
together  on  holiday  afternoons.  There  were 
nearly  ten  miles  between  us,  but  we  rode 
upon  certain  roads  agreed  upon,  and  when  we 
met,  each  took  his  turn  in  riding  home  with 
the  other  and  coming  back  alone.  Many  im- 
portant Swarthmore  affairs  were  talked  over 
in  those  long  rides,  which  we  both,  I  am  sure, 
remember.  Whenever  the  board  of  managers 
met,  and  I  had  any  especially  important  ques- 
tion to  occupy  their  attention,  I  always  looked 


202  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

anxiously  for  his  arrival,  feeling  sure  that  the 
subject  would  receive  from  him  careful  and 
considerate  attention.  On  several  occasions  I 
went  to  his  charming  new  home,  at  his  or  his 
wife's  invitation,  to  address  a  social  neighbor- 
hood meeting  on  some  topic  of  special  interest.* 
Although  from  the  first  Swarthmore  had 
admitted  both  sexes  as  students,  and  admitted 
them  together  to  all  classes,  giving  to  both 
the  same  degrees,  yet,  thus  far,  very  few 
women  had  been  members  of  the  faculty.  Our 
faculty  was  formed  in  a  peculiar  way :  only 
two  officers,  the  president  and  the  dean,  were 
members  ex  officio;  all  others  had  to  be 
elected  by  special  vote  of  the  board  after  their 
appointment  to  a  professorship.  This  was 
done,  at  first,  to  prevent  too  large  a  propor- 
tion of  the  faculty  being  those  who  were  not 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  thus 

1  Of  Isaac  H.  Clothier's  large  family  of  children,  boys 
and  girls,  one  and  all  have  received  their  education  at 
Swarthmore.  The  eldest  son,  Morris  L.  Clothier,  has  been 
for  some  years  at  the  head  of  the  firm  of  Strawbridge  & 
Clothier,  his  father  having  retired  from  active  participation 
in  the  business.  Morris  was  a  graduate  of  the  last  class 
whose  diplomas  I  signed,  as  president,  in  1890.  Fifteen 
years  later,  as  will  be  seen,  he  gave  the  sum  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  endowment  of  the  professorship  of 
Physics. 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    203 

to  keep  the  college  more  fully  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  managers.  In  later  years,  the  ten- 
dency has  been  growing  toward  making  all 
professors  and  teachers,  ex  officiisy  acting 
members  of  the  faculty.  This  is  well,  and  it  is 
an  important  advance  upon  the  original  organ- 
ization. By  the  charter,  all  the  board  must  be 
members  of  our  Religious  Society;  and  this 
too  is  well,  for,  as  I  have  already  said,  the 
purpose  of  this  provision  was  not  to  make  the 
college  a  sectarian  institution,  but  to  prevent 
it  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
might  make  it  sectarian.  Swarthmore  is,  and 
must  continue  to  be,  a  non-sectarian  college. 

At  first  the  only  degree  conferred  by  the 
college  was  that  of  A.  B.  This  was  conferred 
upon  all  graduates.  In  the  confusion  incident 
to  the  beginning  of  any  great  work,  provision 
had  not  been  made  for  the  conferring  of  other 
degrees  ;  but  it  was  intended  to  confer  others 
later,  and  for  these  some  science  courses  had 
been  introduced.  When  the  second  class  came 
to  graduation  in  1874,  five  of  the  seven  grad- 
uates received  the  degree  of  A.  B.,  and  two 
that  of  B.  S.,  one  of  these  two  taking  the 
simple  B.  S.,  and  the  other  taking  the  degree 
called  then  "  B.  S.  in  Engineering." 


204  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

From  the  beginning  of  my  presidency  I 
had  resolved  that  as  fast  as  conditions,  finan- 
cial and  otherwise,  would  warrant,  I  would 
have  new  courses  established,  giving  a  choice 
of  at  least  three  degrees  at  graduation.  My 
experience  in  Brown  University  under  Dr. 
Wayland  had  convinced  me  that  the  time  had 
come  to  vary  from  the  old  classical  curriculum, 
and  bring  the  college  up  to  the  growing  de- 
mands of  modern  times.  Had  I  remained  at 
Yale,  under  the  old  regime^  I  should  have 
been  graduated  in  1854,  instead  of  1852,  and 
been  far  less  prepared  for  the  problems  con- 
fronting me  at  Swarthmore.  If  one  is  careful 
to  follow  the  leading,  when  it  seems  clear, 
without  too  much  asking  why,  that  leading  is 
likely  to  produce  the  best  results,  and  often 
those  which  were  not  at  all  foreseen.  Thus 
at  least  it  was  in  my  case. 

Our  first  modification  of  the  old  curriculum 
was  to  give  the  degree  of  B.  S. ;  moreover,  this 
was  decided  and  announced  as  B.  S.  in  Science, 
and  B.  S.  in  Engineering.  Of  course,  our  de- 
grees in  science  and  civil  engineering  were  of 
much  less  real  value  than  the  degrees  given  in 
these  subjects  in  later  times.  They  were  ten- 
tative and  served  their  purpose  in  their  day. 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    205 

But  the  beginning  of  an  innovation  in  a  long 
established  practice  is  usually  the  hardest 
part,  and  to  me  those  were  indeed  anxious 
days.  At  one  time  I  had  almost  decided  to 
let  the  students  take  what  they  chose,  year 
by  year,  only  requiring  a  properly  filled  pro- 
gramme, and  at  the  end  giving  the  degree 
most  appropriate  to  the  subjects  chosen.  But 
I  had  not  progressed  so  far  as  some  institu- 
tions of  modern  times,  which  give  the  degree 
of  A.  B.,  whatever  the  subject  chosen.  Of  the 
wisdom  of  this  modern  movement  I  must  let 
others  decide. 

One  innovation  which  we  made  from  the 
beginning  was  to  require  no  Greek  for  the 
A.  B.  degree,  the  difEerence  in  amount  of  lan- 
guage training  being  made  up  by  two  years  of 
French  and  two  years  of  German.  This  was 
a  startling  innovation  then,  but  the  plan  is 
now  adopted  by  many  other  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, including  the  oldest  and  best-known 
college  in  our  country. 

Our  plan  of  educating  the  sexes  together 
in  the  same  classes,  in  all  the  subjects  which 
they  elected,  subjected  us  to  much  criticism. 
To  explain  our  policy  I  had  given  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  various  other  places,  a  lecture  on 


206  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

"The  Coeducation  of  the  Sexes."  Upon  this 
question,  as  upon  some  others,  we  stood  upon 
new  ground.  At  that  period  very  few  colleges 
offered  a  college  course  of  study  to  women ; 
in  thus  uniting  them  in  the  same  educational 
home  and  in  the  same  classes  as  the  men,  we 
stood  almost,  if  not  entirely,  alone.  To-day 
women  can  enter  most  of  our  best  colleges 
on  the  same  conditions,  and  receive  the  same 
degrees,  as  the  men.  This  is  indeed  a  great 
change  to  occur  within  the  limits  of  a  single 
lifetime.  Even  conservative  Yale  has  given 
this  year  (1905)  a  number  of  higher  degrees 
to  women,  and  as  they  walked  up  with  the 
men  to  receive  them  at  the  hands  of  President 
Hadley,  they  were  loudly  applauded  by  the 
vast  audience.  What  would  the  president's 
father,  my  favorite  professor  in  Greek  in 
1850-51,  have  thought,  if  he  had  foreseen  his 
son  a  prominent  actor  in  such  a  scene  ?  Surely 
the  world  is  moving  on. 

I  shall  not  make  mention  of  the  successive 
classes  graduated  since  that  early  day,  nor  of 
the  positions  which  the  students  have  occupied 
since  graduation,  to  the  great  credit  of  them- 
selves in  almost  all  cases,  and  to  that  of  their 
Alma  Mater.   This  will  be  shown  in  detail  in 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    207 

the  Historical  Catalogue,  first  prepared  by  m^  ^ 
during  this  year  (1905)  or  thirty-six  years  after 
the  opening  of  the  college,  which  gives,  in 
some  detail,  the  brief  autobiographies  of  those 
who  graduated  in  the  first  twenty  classes,  from 
1873  to  1892  inclusive.  This  catalogue  is  to 
be  followed  by  future  decennial  installments, 
so  that  in  the  future  the  record  of  all  grad- 
uates, both  the  living  and  those  who  are  de- 
ceased, may  be  carefully  preserved  among  the 
college  archives  and  distributed  among  the 
large  and  increasing  number  of  the  patrons  of 
the  college.  These  records  will  furnish  many 
important  data  for  future  historians ;  for  the 
history  of  a  college  is  largely  a  record  of  the 
actions  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  been 
educated  there. 

A  few  other  colleges  in  this  country  have 
pursued,  in  a  general  way,  the  course  here 
noted,  and  among  these  are  Haverford,  Am- 
herst, and  some  others;  but  the  one  which 
has  done  it  most  thoroughly  and  completely 
is  my  Alma  Mater,  Brown  University.^ 

1  Brown  first  put  forth  such  a  catalogue  in  1895,  covering 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  her  history  (1764-1894), 
—  a  truly  monumental  work.  This  year  they  are  preparing 
a  revised  and  corrected  edition,  adding  ten  more  years  (1895- 
1905)  ;  and  the  editions  are  to  continue  hereafter  decennially. 


208  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

The  organization  of  our  board  of  managers 
was,  to  some  extent,  sui  geiieris,  and  needs  to 
be  described  if  the  work  of  the  president  and 
the  faculty  is  to  be  fully  understood.  The 
board  consisted  of  thirty-two  persons,  men 
and  women,  the  sexes  being  equally  divided 
and  having  equal  power.  In  this,  as  in  other 
things,  the  equal  rights,  privileges,  and  duties 
of  men  and  women  were  scrupulously  regarded. 
Lest  there  should  be  any  misunderstanding  on 
this  point,  the  board  took  steps  to  have  the 
charter  so  amended  as  to  make  this  poHcy 
clear  to  all  future  generations.  It  had  been 
noticed  that  in  some  institutions  sudden 
changes,  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  in- 
stitution, were  occasionally  made.  To  prevent 
this  very  undesirable  possibility,  the  revised 
charter  was  drawn  with  great  care,  and  all 
possible  doubts  as  to  its  intention  were  re- 
moved. 

Our  managers,  as  a  body,  never  having 
been  accustomed  to  the  management  of  a  col- 
lege, were  sometimes  inclined  to  act  like  a 
school  committee ;  they  were  unwilling  to  leave 

They,  however,  have  not  done  what  we  propose  to  do,  i.  e. 
require  the  youngest  class  included  to  have  been  out  of 
college  ten  years  ;  we  wait  for  a  class  to  make  some  history 
before  it  is  written. 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    209 

the  internal  management  of  the  college,  in- 
cluding the  discipline,  the  class-room  teaching, 
the  selection  of  appropriate  books,  etc.,  en- 
tirely to  the  president  and  his  faculty,  where 
such  authority  properly  belongs.  The  members 
of  our  board  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  this ;  far 
from  it,  for  they  were  all  devoted  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  college  as  they  understood  them, 
and  acted  according  to  their  light.  What  they 
did  was  but  the  natural  result  of  views  on 
education  and  educational  institutions  then 
prevalent  in  the  Eeligious  Society  of  Friends. 
They  were  always  ready  to  contribute  liber- 
ally, as  far  as  their  individual  means  would 
allow,  toward  the  expenses  of  the  college.  If 
their  views  were  not  all  in  accord  with  those 
of  the  faculty,  they  gained  in  liberality  in  their 
direction  of  the  college  year  by  year.  In  the 
course  of  the  many  years  I  spent  under  the 
direction  of  that  body,  I  can  truly  say  that 
my  treatment  at  their  hands,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  faculty,  was  kind,  hberal,  and  courte- 
ous ;  and  for  this  I  can  but  express  the  grate- 
ful feeUng  within  my  heart,  as  I  look  back 
into  the  now  distant  past. 

In  these  memoirs,  I  could  not  name  all  the 
managers  under  whose  oversight  we  labored, 


210  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

but  I  shall  mention^  as  being  especially  active 
among  them,  Samuel  Willets,  Hugh  Mcll- 
vain  and  wife,  Edward  Hoopes,  Clement  Bid- 
die,  Edward  H.  Ogden,  Clement  M.  Biddle, 
James  V.  Watson,  Jane  P.  Downing,  Eli  M. 
Lamb,  Isaac  Stephens  and  wife,  Daniel  Under- 
bill, John  D.  Hicks,  and  Hannah  W.  Hay- 
dock,  the  larger  number  of  whom  are  not  now 
living.  They  often  disagreed  with  me  as  to 
the  proper  ways  and  means  of  managing  the 
college,  as  they  did  also  with  our  first  presi- 
dent, Edward  Parrish  ;  but  they  were  honest 
in  their  convictions,  and  with  such  men  and 
women  there  should  be,  and  really  could  be, 
no  contention  or  controversy. 

Samuel  Willets,  of  New  York,  was  then  too 
old  and  feeble  to  be  very  active  in  the  college 
work,  but  he  was  deeply  interested  in  it,  and 
gave  largely  of  his  means,  which  was  most 
essential  for  our  early  success ;  he  was,  from 
the  first,  president  of  the  board.  I  well  re- 
call a  walk  taken  with  him  over  the  college 
grounds  to  "inspect  the  buildings;  "  a  curi- 
ous expression,  for,  except  the  one  general 
building,  Parrish  Hall,  there  were  then  no 
other  buildings  to  inspect.  When  he  had  seen 
all,  and  heard  what  was  proposed  for  later 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    211 

development,  he  expressed  pleasure  in  the 
excellence  of  our  location.  Standing  at  the 
edge  of  the  girls'  grove,  where  the  Meeting- 
house now  is,  he  looked  around  on  the  well- 
cultivated  and  nicely-mown  fields,  and  said : 
"  Edward,  in  all  the  early  part  of  my  life  I 
was  closely  occupied  in  doing  that "  (and  he 
closed  his  fist  firmly  as  he  spoke).  Then, 
slowly  opening  wide  his  hand,  he  added  :  "  I 
have  been  trying,  all  the  latter  part  of  my 
life,  to  do  thaL''^  From  the  first  he  was  a 
noble  and  generous  friend  of  the  college,  and 
many  times,  when  we  needed  a  few  thousand 
dollars  for  some  special  purpose,  he  would 
say,  "  Raise  one  half  that  sum  in  the  limits  of 
the  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting,  and  I  will 
be  responsible  that  the  other  half,  from  the 
Friends  in  New  York,  shall  be  ready."  This 
latter  half  frequently  came  as  a  personal  gift 
from  himself. 

One  of  the  latest  acts  in  the  noble  and  use- 
ful life  of  Samuel  Willets  was  the  signing  of 
a  check  for  a  large  sum  to  make  good  our 
great  loss  by  fire,  which  destroyed  our  entire 
college  building,  about  twelve  years  after  the 
opening,  in  the  autumn  of  1881.  After  our 
painful  and  long-continued  efforts  to  provide 


212  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

the  means  to  put  up  this  first  building,  which 
cost  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
dollars,  to  lose  it  with  insurance  upon  it  for 
less  than  half  its  cost  —  which  was  an  acci- 
dental oversight  of  the  chairman  of  our  build- 
ing committee — this  was  indeed  hard  to  bear. 
Coming  thus  suddenly,  the  disaster  almost  dis- 
heartened us.  Each  summer  vacation  we  had 
made  additional  improvements,  and  in  that 
fatal  summer  of  1881  we  had  just  completed 
the  painting  of  the  walls  of  the  long  halls 
and  rooms,  and  were  rejoicing  in  our  success- 
ful preparation  for  our  thirteenth  year. 

On  a  certain  First-day  (Sunday)  afternoon 
in  September,  1881,  I  rode  on  horseback  by 
the  front  of  Parrish  Hall  on  the  way,  so  often 
traveled,  to  meet  my  friend,  Isaac  H.  Clothier, 
at  his  pleasant  home  at  Sharon  Hill.  As  I 
passed  the  front  I  said  to  myself,  "The  year 
before  us  looks  most  hopeful.  The  halls  and 
rooms  are  nicely  papered,  and  there  is  an 
entrance  list  of  about  two  hundred  and  forty 
students."  Little  did  I  think  how  soon  or 
how  suddenly  our  bright  prospects  were  to 
be  blasted.  It  was  near  midnight  on  my 
return,  and  again  I  rode  past  the  front  of 
Parrish  Hall  on  the  way  home,  and  the  same 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    213 

happy  feelings  filled  my  heart,  increased  by 
a  hopeful  and  encouraging  talk  with  my  friend 
at  Sharon  Hill.  The  one-armed  watchman — 
the  faithful  servant  who  went  on  duty  and 
saved  us  anxiety  at  night  for  many  a  year — 
William  Mullen — was  standing  at  the  front 
door  as  I  passed,  and,  as  often  before,  he  went 
with  me  to  see  my  horse  housed  in  the  stable. 
He  returned  to  the  college  and  I  entered  my 
house.  Just  as  I  was  preparing  to  retire,  a 
deafening  report  reached  my  ears;  looking 
from  our  chamber  window  toward  the  college, 
I  saw  a  stream  of  fire  issuing  like  a  rocket 
from  the  great  dome,  toward  the  northwest. 
I  ran  to  the  college  to  aid  and  direct  in  what- 
ever relief  was  possible. 

The  great  tank  at  the  top  of  the  building 
proved  to  be  nearly  empty,  and  the  hose  de- 
livered only  a  feeble  stream.  Seeing  that  all 
hope  of  saving  the  building  was  gone,  we 
roused  the  men  students,  who  were  buried  in 
the  first  deep  sleep  of  night.  In  the  women's 
end  the  matron  did  the  same,  assembling  the 
young  women  in  her  rooms  and  telling  them 
not  to  venture  upstairs  again.  Meanwhile  the 
young  men,  of  their  own  motion,  formed  a 
double  line,  one  line  up  the  northwest  stair- 


214  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

way,  the  other  down  the  southwest.  Thus  they 
carried  out  all  their  belongings  upon  which 
they  could  lay  hands.  They  had  previously 
thrown  their  matresses  onto  the  front  lawn. 
In  an  hour  or  so  the  house  was  cleared,  and 
the  front  lawn  was  covered  with  mattresses  and 
other  bedding.  The  young  men  saved  most 
of  their  belongings ;  the  girls  lost  nearly  all 
of  theirs.  But  in  that  fearful  confusion  of 
midnight,  not  one  life  was  lost,  nor  was  one 
person  seriously  injured,  although  two  hun- 
dred and  nineteen  students  had  returned  from 
their  homes  after  the  vacation. 

Some  students  had  hastened  to  the  station 
and  telegraphed  to  Philadelphia  for  a  fire  com- 
pany, but  it  arrived  about  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  when  only  the  bare  walls  of  our  be- 
loved college  stood,  a  smoking  ruin.  Even  at 
that  late  hour,  the  firemen  wished  to  connect 
their  hose  with  Crum  Creek,  and  throw  water 
on  the  ruined  walls.  We  forbade  them  to  do 
so  and  thus  saved  the  walls  from  cracking 
and  falKng.  This  in  the  end  proved  a  saving 
of  almost  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  the 
rebuilding. 

The  board  of  managers  had  visited  us  on 
Seventh-day  (Saturday)  just  before  the  great 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE  :  1871-90    215 

disaster,  and  had  staked  out  the  lines  for 
a  Science  Building,  between  the  president's 
house  and  Parrish  Hall.  As  we  stumbled  over 
those  stakes  on  that  fearful  night,  we  said  to 
ourselves,  "This  site  so  near  the  main  build- 
ing can  never  be  thought  of  again,  on  account 
of  danger  by  fire ; "  and  it  never  was.  Later, 
when  Science  Hall  was  constructed,  it  took  its 
natural  place  to  the  northeast  of  the  college. 

The  cause  of  this  disastrous  fire  has  never 
been  satisfactorily  explained.  I  quote  the  fol- 
lowing from  a  letter  recently  received  from 
Charles  B.  Doron,  a  member  of  the  class  of 
1881,  who  had  graduated  a  few  months  before 
the  fire. 

"  I  remember  meeting  Dr.  Leidy,  who,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  asked  me  why  I  had  left 
chemicals  in  my  dark  room  off  the  museum, 
and  had  thus  set  fire  to  the  building,  through 
spontaneous  combustion.  This  report,  I  be- 
lieve, was  published  in  the  ^  Public  Ledger ' 
of  Philadelphia,  and  for  many  years  I  was 
credited  with  the  disaster.  Fortunately  for  my 
record,  I  had  removed  everything  from  that 
closet  before  vacation  commenced,  and  the 
closet  was  empty.  Just  before  commencement 
I  had  emptied  a  barrel  of  alcohol  into  two 


216  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

glass  carboys,  and  these  were  in  the  closet 
next  to  the  glass-room.  These  probably  caused 
the  two  explosions  that  were  heard,  and  also 
spread  the  fire  rapidly.  The  alcohol  had  been 
sent  there  for  museum  purposes,  and  I  made 
the  change  by  the  direction  of  Dr.  Leidy." 

In  a  later  letter  Mr.  Doron  says  that  he  is 
at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  fire, 
as,  so  far  as  he  knows,  there  was  nothing  any- 
where in  that  vicinity  that  could  take  fire  by 
spontaneous  combustion.  My  own  theory  has 
always  been  different  and  is  as  follows :  The 
supply  gas  pipe  went  up  through  the  south- 
west corner  of  the  dining  and  study  rooms  to 
the  museum  above.  Some  leakage  in  this  gen- 
eral supply  pipe  was  occasionally  found  and 
repaired.  An  undiscovered  leak  must  have 
gradually  filled  with  gas  the  space  behind  the 
plastered  partitions,  and  this  gas,  escaping 
into  the  museum,  had  reached  a  small  light 
kept  burning  there,  thus  causing  the  explo- 
sions heard,  and,  perhaps,  with  the  alcohol,  the 
rapid  spread  of  the  fire.  My  own  mind  was 
promptly  made  up  at  the  time  that  the  fire 
had  no  other  cause. 

Discouraging  as  was  this  unforeseen  disas- 
ter, we  did  not  lose  hope.   A  large  and  efi&cient 


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PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    217 

committee  was  appointed  by  the  board  to  col- 
lect funds,  the  necessary  means  were  subscribed 
by  Friends  and  others,  and  in  one  year  from 
the  date  of  the  fire  the  college  exercises  were 
resumed  in  the  new  building.  The  amount 
raised  was  sufficient  to  make  the  needed  re- 
pairs, pay  all  expenses,  and  have  enough  over 
to  liquidate  a  mortgage  of  some  twelve  thou- 
sand dollars,  the  only  mortgage  that  was  ever 
placed  upon  the  college.  A  check  of  Samuel 
Willets,  signed  upon  his  deathbed,  completed 
the  amount  necessary  to  cover  our  loss  by  the 
great  fire. 

Six  years  after  the  fire,  1887-88,  I  felt 
that  the  time  had  come  for  the  endowment  of 
some  of  our  professorships.  We  had,  as  yet, 
no  alumni  old  enough  to  enable  us  to  look  to 
them  for  this  aid.  I  talked  the  matter  over 
with  several  of  our  managers  and  other  friends 
of  the  college,  and  at  length  William  Mar- 
shall, of  Milwaukee,  suggested  to  me  the 
idea  of  a  conditional  subscription,  and  papers 
were  sent  out  just  after  the  commencement 
of  1887,  asking  for  subscriptions  of  large 
or  small  sums  toward  the  endowment  of  one 
professorship   with    forty   thousand    dollars. 


218  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

The  subscription  papers  were  so  drawn  that 
all  subscriptions  would  be  void  if  the  full 
amount  was  not  subscribed  before  commence- 
ment day  of  1888,  the  next  year.  Even  very 
small  subscriptions  were  received ;  the  amounts 
varied  from  small  sums  to  fifty  dollars,  one 
hundred  dollars,  etc.,  a  few  reaching  the  one- 
thousand-dollar  mark.  Samuel  Marshall  him- 
self contributed  seven  thousand  dollars,  and 
Daniel  Underbill,  Sr.,  subscribed  one  thou- 
sand dollars,  if  we  came  within  that  amount 
of  the  forty  thousand  dollars  before  the  com- 
ing commencement.  As  time  passed  I  sent 
out  other  and  more  urgent  subscription  pa- 
pers, naming  the  sum  reached  and  reminding 
our  friends  of  the  danger  of  losing  it  all  if 
the  required  amount  should  not  be  reached 
within  the  time  named.  Within  about  three 
weeks  of  commencement  some  thirty  thousand 
dollars  had  been  secured.  At  this  time  the 
board  appointed  a  collection  committee  to  aid 
in  raising  the  last  ten  thousand  dollars.  Soon 
after  I  met  and  urged  two  of  our  most  wealthy 
members  to  subscribe,  they  having  not  yet 
done  so,  to  my  very  great  surprise.  They  put 
me  off  without  an  absolute  refusal,  but  were 
''  not  quite  ready  to  do  so  yet." 


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PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    219 

Commencement  day  now  drew  very  near,  and 
still  I  saw  no  prospect  of  a  successful  close  of 
the  forty-thousand-dollar  subscription.  But 
finally  word  came  to  me  that  the  board  had 
assumed  responsibility  for  the  amount  needed 
to  make  my  own  collections  valid. 

About  this  time,  a  few  days  before  com- 
mencement, Isaac  H.  Clothier  invited  me  to 
dine  with  him  at  his  home  at  Wynnewood, 
and  after  dinner  he  explained  to  me  the  sit- 
uation, which  was  substantially  this :  he  and 
Joseph  Wharton  had  seen  Isaiah  V.  Wil- 
liamson (later  the  founder  of  the  Williamson 
Free  School  of  Mechanical  Trades  at  Elwyn, 
Pa.)  and  they  three  had  agreed  that  if  the 
board  would  assume  responsibility  for  the 
sum  necessary  to  make  up  my  subscriptions 
to  forty  thousand  dollars,  they  would  each 
give  forty  thousand  dollars  additional,  thus 
securing  the  endowment  of  four  professor- 
ships instead  of  one.  This  good  news  I  was 
authorized  to  announce  at  commencement. 

Since  that  year,  1888,  seventeen  years  have 
passed,  and  until  the  present  year  no  addi- 
tional endowment  had  been  obtained.  But 
now,  through  the  influence  and  labor  of  Presi- 
dent Swain,  the  general  endowment  fund  has 


v/ 


^ 


220  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

been  increased  until  it  has  reached  one  mil- 
lion dollars.  As  already  stated  elsewhere,  the 
eldest  son  of  my  friend  Isaac  H.  Clothier  has 
endowed  the  chair  of  Physics  with  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars.  He  is  the  first  alumnus  to  con- 
tribute to  the  college  such  a  sum ;  but  he  is 
likely  to  be  far  from  the  last,  as  time  will  show. 
I  may  mention  another  notable  instance  of 
the  kind  of  support  that  I  have  received  from 
Isaac  H.  Clothier  in  times  of  need  through 
the  laborious  and  anxious  years  devoted  to  the 
building  up  of  our  new  college.  Soon  after 
the  opening,  through  the  aid  of  Benjamin 
Lippincott,  a  friend  in  Washington  connected 
with  the  post-oflBce  department,  I  secured  the 
establishment  of  a  post-ofBce  at  our  railroad 
station.  Of  this  I  was  appointed  postmaster. 
At  that  time  the  salaries  of  third-class  post- 
masters were  based  upon  the  income  from  the 
stamps  sold  by  the  office.  Several  members 
of  the  board,  and  others  residing  elsewhere, 
patronized  the  office  by  purchasing  their 
stamps  of  us  instead  of  buying  at  their  offices 
near  home.  This  increased  the  amount  of  the 
postmaster's  salary  until  it  amounted  to  over 
two  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Receiving  my 
salary  as  president,  I  felt  that  my  time  was 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    221 

the  property  of  the  college,  and  that  I  could 
not  honorably  draw  another  salary  at  the 
same  time.  I  hired,  from  the  first,  an  excel- 
lent assistant,  Thomas  J.  Dolphin,  paying  him 
well  for  so  small  an  ofBce,  and  put  the  work 
practically  in  his  hands,  as  my  time  was  full 
of  college  duties.  Even  his  salary  used  but 
a  small  part  of  the  amount  received  from  the 
sale  of  stamps,  so  I  kept  an  accurate  separate 
account  of  these  receipts,  and  used  the  bal- 
ance in  various  ways  to  procure  what  seemed 
most  needed  by  the  college.  This  I  continued 
to  do  until  the  close  of  my  presidency  in 
1890. 

My  accounts  as  postmaster  were,  of  course, 
sent  in  regularly  to  Washington  at  the  times 
required  by  law.  One  day,  word  came  from 
Washington  to  one  of  our  managers  that  I 
was  about  two  thousand  two  hundred  dollars 
behind  in  my  account  with  the  department. 
Of  course  I  had  sureties,  as  the  law  required, 
in  the  sum  of  several  thousand  dollars  each. 
My  friend  on  the  board,  who  had  heard  of 
the  deficiency,  saw  Isaac  H.  Clothier,  and 
proposed  to  refer  the  matter  at  once  to  my 
sureties.  But  Isaac  kindly  said  :  "  I  must  see 
Edward  first,  and  hear  what  he  has  to  say," 


222  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

and  he  lost  no  time  in  coming  to  me.  I  was 
almost  completely  stunned  when  I  heard  the 
charges,  and  said  at  once  that  I  had  paid  reg- 
ularly every  term  as  the  payments  came  due, 
and  that  I  had  filed  the  receipts  from  Wash- 
ington. This  was  some  time  after  our  great 
fire.  At  the  time  of  the  fire  I  had  gone  back 
into  the  college  after  all  had  left  it,  while  the 
fire  was  still  raging,  and,  by  the  aid  of  a 
powerful  and  always  willing  laborer  (John 
Kane),  had  entered  my  office  and  secured  the 
package  of  papers  which  contained  my  post- 
office  accounts.  By  these,  which  had  so  nar- 
rowly escaped  destruction,  I  soon  showed  my 
friend  that  there  had  been  some  mistake  in 
Washington.  At  his  suggestion  I  left  home 
at  once  and  went  directly  to  Washington. 

In  the  capital  I  found  my  friend  Benjamin 
Lippincott,  of  the  post-office  department,  who 
had  so  kindly  aided  me  in  establishing  the 
Swarthmore  post-office,  and  he  went  over  the 
accounts  carefully  with  me.  This  occupied  two 
or  three  days,  and  I  then  had  the  satisfaction 
of  returning  home  with  the  evidence  that  in- 
stead of  my  owing  the  department  over  two 
thousand  two  hundred  dollars,  there  were  a 
few  cents  due  me  from  the  department. 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    223 

The  cause  of  the  mistake  neither  my  friend 
nor  myself  ever  discovered,  but  we  supposed 
that  some  one  in  the  Washington  office,  or  on 
the  road,  had  intercepted  some  papers,  perhaps 
with  the  desire  of  securing  an  appointment 
for  himself. 

It  was  during  the  year  when  Swarthmore 
College  was  located  at  Media  —  the  year  after 
the  fire  —  that  our  first  college  paper  of  any 
importance, "  The  Phoenix,"  was  started  by  the 
students.  Up  to  that  time  the  faculty  had  felt 
that,  with  so  many  young  people  in  the  pre- 
paratory school,  the  responsibility  of  a  regular 
paper  could  not  well  be  intrusted  to  them. 
But  the  idea  of  a  student  paper  had  been 
growing  for  several  years,  and  during  that 
year,  or  immediately  after,  it  became  a  reality. 
The  paper  was  called  "The  Phoenix,"  as  com-  ^ 
ing  from  a  college  which  had  just  risen  from 
its  ashes ;  it  might  have  symbolized  also  the 
marvelous  and  sudden  growth  of  the  college, 
due  to  the  renewed  interest  of  Friends  in  it 
on  account  of  the  recent  calamity.  For  some 
time  we  had  a  committee  of  the  faculty  to 
whom  the  "  copy  "  of  the  new  paper  had  to 
be  presented  for  approval.  For  a  time  this 
regulation  caused  considerable  friction,  and 


224  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

the  committee  in  charge  was  not  always  suffi- 
ciently consulted.  The  ideal  condition  seems 
to  me  to  have  been  attained  this  year  (1905) : 
^^The  Swarthmorean "  has  been  established, 
uniting  with  it  "  The  Phcenix,"  the  two  papers 
being  under  the  joint  management  of  members 
of  the  faculty  and  students. 
\/  It  seems  that  the  time  of  the  fire  was  a 
period  of  beginning  new  movements.  I  may 
properly  mention  here  the  matter  of  athletics, 
and  the  exchange  of  games  between  Swarth- 
more  and  the  neighboring  colleges  and  schools. 
Up  to  this  time  little  liberty  had  been  allowed 
the  students  in  this  respect,  and  an  occasional 
surreptitious  game  at  Media  or  Chester,  with 
the  young  fellows  of  ShortHdge's  School,  or 
the  cadets  at  Colonel  Hyatt's  Military  Acad- 
emy, was  a  cause  of  anxiety.  I  saw  plainly 
that  the  time  was  near  for  greater  liberty  to 
be  given  the  students  in  this  matter.  Some 
of  the  active  members  of  our  board,  however, 
held  altogether  different  views,  and  to  see 
occasional  reports  in  the  papers  of  games  of 
this  kind  played  by  Swarthmore  students  was 
a  cause  of  great  anxiety  to  me. 

Just  about  this  time  an  infraction  of  our 
rules  occurred  by  our  students  playing  a  game 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :  1871-90    225 

with  the  cadets  at  Colonel  Hyatt's  Military 
Academy.  I  saw  that  the  time  had  come  when 
such  games,  under  proper  rules,  must  be  al- 
lowed, including,  of  course,  return  games  on 
our  own  grounds.  After  consideration,  the 
faculty  yielded  this  point,  to  the  great  satis- 
faction of  the  students,  and  to  the  disgust  of 
at  least  a  few  of  the  managers.  Indeed,  we 
soon  felt  that  by  requiring  the  visiting  stu- 
dents to  observe  our  rules  as  to  smoking, 
betting,  and  profanity,  Swarthmore  was  really 
exercising  a  good  influence  among  the  sur- 
rounding schools.  This  institution  of  intercol- 
legiate sports  was  another  move  toward  giving 
Swarthmore  an  honored  and  well-known  place 
among  her  sister  colleges.  The  strict  regula- 
tions of  the  early  days  were  due  to  the  num- 
ber of  students  in  our  preparatory  school, 
already  referred  to,  which  was  then  so  large 
that  many,  who  did  not  understand  us  or  our 
ultimate  aims,  said  that  Swarthmore  was  not 
and  must  not  become  a  college. 

It  was  during  the  year  1886  that  some  of 
us  were  much  exercised  on  the  subject  of  state 
taxation  of  college  property.  As  most  colleges 
were  supported  largely  by  endowments,  and 
as  the  cost  of  a  college  education  was  likely  to 


xy 


226  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

grow  less  as  the  colleges  were  more  liberally 
endowed,  we  felt  increasingly,  year  by  year, 
that  a  change  in  our  laws  should  be  made,  en- 
tirely releasing  from  taxation  all  colleges  that 
were  supported  mainly  by  their  endowments. 

During  the  winter  of  1886  I  traveled  much 
among  the  colleges  of  Pennsylvania,  especially 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  and  advo- 
cated such  a  change  in  our  state  laws.  As  I 
passed  from  college  to  college  I  found  a  feel- 
ing prevailing  among  them  that  such  a  change 
in  our  laws  was  reasonable  and  desirable ;  and 
furthermore,  that  the  endowed  colleges  should 
even  receive  state  aid,  such  as  was  then  ex- 
tended to  the  normal  schools.  Indeed,  we  fur- 
ther maintained  that  a  coUege  degree  should 
be  preferred  to  the  degrees  of  the  normal 
schools  as  evidence  of  fitness  for  positions  as 
teachers  in  the  public  schools.  It  will  be  seen 
that  we  aimed  high,  and,  as  we  might  have 
expected,  our  time-serving  legislators  were 
not  ready  to  take  ground  so  advanced.  As  a 
result,  we  were  not  able  to  move  the  legisla- 
tive committees  to  whom  our  claims  were  pre- 
sented, and  that  work  was  necessarily  left  to 
the  slower  development  of  time. 

But  another  and  quite  as  important  a  result 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :   1871-90    227 

followed  from  my  calling  together  the  college 
officers  during  that  winter.  This  was  the  for- 
mation of  an  Association  of  the  Colleges  of 
Pennsylvania,  similar  to  that  already  existing 
among  the  New  England  colleges ;  New  Eng- 
land at  that  time  being  quite  in  advance  of 
the  Middle,  Southern,  or  Western  States, 
Michigan  perhaps  excepted,  in  educational 
matters.  On  February  16,  1887,  we  issued 
a  call  for  a  conference  of  the  colleges  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  to  be  held  at  Harris- 
burg  on  March  1  of  that  year.  Ten  of  the 
state  colleges  were  represented  at  this  first 
meeting,  one  half  of  these  being  represented 
by  their  presidents  and  one  half  by  both 
their  presidents  and  the  presidents  of  their 
boards.  This  meeting  prepared  a  proposed 
supplement  to  what  was  called  "An  Act  to 
exempt  from  taxation  public  property,"  and 
which  had  been  approved  March  14,  1874. 
I  am  confident  that  the  proposition  will  yet 
be  admitted  to  be  a  proper  and  reasonable 
one,  but  public  sentiment  —  to  which  our 
legislators  are  ever  ready  to  bow  assent  —  was 
not  then  and  is  not  yet  prepared  for  such  an 
exemption  as  we  proposed  for  the  colleges  of 
the  State. 


228  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Among  my  papers  is  the  report  of  President 
Seip  of  Muhlenburg  College,  who  was  made 
secretary  of  the  new  organization,  stating  that 
I  drew  up  a  constitution  for  the  association, 
which  was  considered  and  approved  at  a  sec- 
ond meeting  held  at  Franklin  and  Marshall 
College,  at  Lancaster,  on  July  5  and  6,  1887. 
The  papers  prepared  for  this  meeting  by  Pre- 
sident Apple  and  myself  were  presented  and 
more  or  less  fully  considered.  This  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  regular  meeting  of  the 
association. 

President  Apple's  paper  was  on  "  The  Idea 
of  a  Liberal  Education."  It  was  a  masterly 
effort,  and  took  ground  quite  in  advance  of 
the  popular  idea  of  a  liberal  education  at  that 
time.  He  took  the  word  ''  liberal "  in  its  larg- 
est sense,  covering  the  whole  area  of  human 
knowledge,  "  so  far  as  this  knowledge  has  been 
reduced  to  scientific  expression."  Soon  after 
we  met  with  a  great  loss  in  the  death  of  Pre- 
sident Apple,  but  his  ideas  have  entered  into 
the  common  thought  of  leading  educators  of 
the  present  day. 

My  own  paper  discussed  "  The  Proper  Eela- 
tions  of  Colleges  to  the  Educational  Influences 
of  the  State."    A  public  meeting  was  held  that 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE  :  1871-90    229 

evening  in  the  court-house  at  Lancaster,  the 
principal  address  being  made  by  Professor 
Edmund  J.  James  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, who  has  recently  been  called  to  the 
presidency  of  the  University  of  Illinois.  His 
address  was  a  powerful  one,  and  in  his  clear 
insight  into  conditions  present  and  future  I 
believe  that  I  have  rarely,  if  ever,  heard  it 
surpassed. 

President  Apple's  address  and  my  own  are 
printed  in  full  in  the  pamphlet  which  gives 
the  history  of  our  first  year's  work;  they  will 
show  what  great  progress  has  been  made  in 
educational  matters  during  the  eighteen  years 
of  the  existence  of  the  association.  The  hopes 
therein  expressed  by  us  for  the  future  of  our 
educational  system  will  be  seen  to  have  been 
largely  realized  in  that  period. 

But  ample  room  for  progress  in  the  same 
direction  is  left.  One  lifetime,  however  long, 
is  infinitesimally  short  in  considering  the  pro- 
gress of  the  race.  This  we  may  hope  to  see 
ever  advancing,  but  may  never  hope  to  see 
perfected,  for  each  step  upward  gives  us  a 
wider  range  of  vision,  and  each  generation 
stands  for  its  outlook,  so  to  speak,  upon  the 
shoulders  of  generations  past.    When  we  feel. 


230  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

as  individuals,  that  there  is  nothing  more  for 
us  to  do  in  the  way  of  progress,  then  it  be- 
comes plain  that  our  work  is  nearly  ended. 

I  have  made  but  a  brief  reference  to  the 
very  important  meeting  at  Lancaster.  Now, 
as  a  more  complete  organization,  "  The  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools 
of  the  Middle  States  and  Maryland  "  is  next 
to  the  largest  educational  association  in  this 
country,  being  surpassed  in  size  only  by  "  The 
National  Teachers'  Association,"  which  some- 
times assembles  over  twenty  thousand  mem- 
bers at  its  annual  meeting,  a  number  reached 
during  the  past  year  at  the  meeting  at  Asbury 
Park. 

I  should  state  here  that,  having  in  mind  the 
tendency  of  Friends  in  those  days  to  decline 
to  work  with  others,  I  secured  the  introduc- 
tion into  the  constitution  of  the  association  of 
the  clause :  "  All  the  decisions  of  this  Associa- 
tion are  to  be  considered  advisory  and  not 
compulsory  in  their  application."  This  was 
evidently  quite  a  relief  to  our  managers,  and 
I  meant  that  it  should  be.  When  the  expenses 
of  the  meetings  were  apportioned  among  the 
colleges  represented,  I  presented  this  bill  to 
our  board  with  some  fear,  but  I  had  fully 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE  :   1871-90    231 

resolved  to  pay  it  myself  if  our  auditing  com- 
mittee threw  it  out.  But  they  did  not,  and  I 
felt  that  a  victory  had  been  gained,  one  which 
would  eventually  be  more  valuable  to  the  col- 
lege than  any  other  achieved  up  to  that  time. 
After  a  few  years,  I  felt  that,  Swarthmore 
being  now  fairly  enrolled  in  the  list  of  the 
state  colleges  and  working  in  harmony  with 
them,  it  would  be  a  good  step  to  invite  the 
new  association  to  meet  at  the  college  during 
the  summer  vacation.  By  that  means  I  was 
confident  our  young  college  would  become 
much  more  generally  and  favorably  known. 
At  first  there  was  some  opposition  to  this  plan 
among  the  managers,  but  at  length  they  en- 
tered into  it  heartily.  President  Seth  Low  of 
Columbia  University  was  our  presiding  offi- 
cer that  year,  and  Nicholas  Murray  Butler, 
now  his  successor,  was  one  of  the  most  active 
of  the  members  present.  It  was  a  busy  and 
happy  week  for  me,  for  naturally  I  was  proud 
to  show  to  the  college  men  of  our  State  just 
what  Swarthmore  had  become  (being  one  of 
the  youngest  of  the  colleges  of  Pennsylvania), 
and  how  well  she  could  act  the  liberal  host 
with  the  large  number  of  guests  that  thronged 
her  halls. 


232  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

During  the  week  the  Schoolmasters'  Asso- 
ciation sent  a  delegation  to  one  of  our  sessions, 
with  the  request  that  they  be  admitted  to  mem- 
bership with  us.  At  the  suggestion  of  Provost 
Pepper  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  it 
was  proposed  to  change  our  constitution 
and  to  call  the  association  "  The  Association 
of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools  of  the 
Middle  States  and  Maryland."  So  it  stands 
to  this  day. 

My  labors  during  the  years  1888  and  1889, 
aside  from  what  I  had  been  able  to  accom- 
plish within  the  college  itself,  having  done 
much  to  place  Swarthmore  in  its  true  position 
among  the  colleges  of  our  State  and  nation, 
I  began  to  consider  carefully,  but  without 
consulting  others,  the  subject  of  drawing  to 
a  close  my  labors  as  president.  Having  found 
and  recommended  to  the  board  a  suitable 
successor,  I  planned  to  spend  the  remaining 
years  of  my  laborious  life  in  the  less  burden- 
some duties  of  a  professorship.  My  health 
had  been  mercifully  preserved  thus  far,  amid 
all  my  cares  and  anxieties  ;  occupying  myself 
for  several  of  the  busiest  years  wholly  in  the 
management  of  the  general  affairs  of  the  col- 
lege, without  class-room  work,  doubtless  con- 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :   1871-90    233 

tributed  to  this  end.  The  funds  available  for 
the  college  at  that  time  were  insufficient  to 
maintain  the  necessary  professors  in  the  vari- 
ous departments,  but  in  rearranging  the  work 
about  this  time,  I  had  found  that  by  releasing 
the  professor  at  the  head  of  the  French  de- 
partment and  taking  his  duties  myself,  with 
the  aid  of  a  young  and  inexperienced  assist- 
ant, I  could  make  out  the  new  "  budget "  in 
a  way  that  would  be  satisfactory  to  the  man- 
agers. As  the  result  of  this  arrangement  at 
the  close  of  a  laborious  year,  my  assistant  in 
French  having  been  compelled  to  withdraw 
on  account  of  ill  health,  I  had  been  forced 
for  two  or  three  months  near  the  end  of  the 
year  to  carry  his  duties,  my  own  class-room 
work,  and  the  general  management  of  the 
college.  On  commencement  day,  just  after 
the  close  of  the  exercises,  I  fell  heavily  in  the 
hallway,  totally  unconscious,  and  was  revived 
with  difficulty. 

The  following  vacation  was  not  a  restful 
one  to  me,  although  we  spent  it  all,  as  we  had 
some  others,  at  a  charming  seaside  retreat, 
East  Gloucester,  Massachusetts.  My  nervous 
prostration  wore  off,  even  there,  but  slowly, 
and,  all  things  considered,  I  felt  that  it  would 


234  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

be  wise  for  me  to  resign  the  presidency.  To 
save  the  managers  trouble  about  properly 
filling  the  place,  I  resolved  that  I  would  take 
the  step  if  Professor  William  Hyde  Appleton 
would  consent  to  accept  the  position.  My 
interviews  with  him  were  frequent  and  my 
persuasions  earnest,  but  he  felt  that  the  duties 
of  his'  own  professorship  were  too  congenial 
for  him  to  exchange  them  for  the  presidency. 
At  length,  however,  as  I  have  stated  before, 
I  prevailed  upon  him  to  do  so  ;  but  he  would 
consent  to  act  for  only  one  year,  or  until  a 
permanent  president  could  be  secured.  By 
private  interviews  with  some  of  the  more  ac- 
tive managers,  I  found  that  I  could  carry  out 
my  desire  to  resign  in  that  way. 

When  it  became  known  that  I  had  ten- 
dered my  resignation,  the  general  remark 
was  :  "  Why  need  he  retire  so  soon  ?  "  But 
I  preferred  to  have  that  said  of  me  rather 
than,  "  Why  did  he  not  resign  sooner  ?  "  The 
board  expressed  their  regret,  but  I  could  not 
feel  it  right,  or  even  safe,  for  me  to  take  any 
other  course.  They  accepted  my  resignation, 
to  take  effect  in  one  year,  and  gave  me  leave  of 
absence  for  that  year,  with  my  regular  salary. 
I  felt  that  this  recognition  of  my  services  was 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE :   1871-90    235 

an  ample  reward  for  all  the  opposition  I  had 
met  with  on  account  of  my  differing  views  as 
to  the  management  of  the  college.  They  also 
appointed  me  to  the  professorship  of  French, 
to  be  assumed  at  the  close  of  my  year's  ab- 
sence. 

The  following  extract  from  the  minutes  of 
the  managers  of  the  college  will  show  how 
fully  my  labors  as  president  were  appreci- 
ated :  — 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
Swarthmore  College,  held  Sixth  Month,  sev- 
enteenth, 1889. 

A  communication  was  received  from  Ed- 
ward H.  Magill,  President  of  Swarthmore 
College,  in  which  he  respectfully  offered  his 
resignation  thereof,  to  take  effect  at  such  time 
as  the  Board  may  elect,  and  on  motion  the 
following  resolutions  were  adopted,  to  wit : 

Resolved^  that  the  resignation  of  Edward 
H.  Magill  as  President  of  this  College  be  ac- 
cepted, to  take  effect  on  Commencement  Day, 
1890,  leave  of  absence  being  granted  mean- 
while, with  full  pay. 

Resolved,  that  Edward  H.  Magill  be  and 
is  hereby  appointed  to  the  position  on  the 


236  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

College  Faculty  of  Professor  of  the  French 
Language  and  Literature,  at  a  salary  of  three 
thousand  dollars  ($3,000)  per  annum,  begin- 
ning with  the  commencement  of  the  College 
year,  the  Autumn  of  1890. 

Resolved^  that  the  Board  place  on  record 
their  appreciation  of  the  ability,  the  diUgence, 
the  devoted  enthusiasm  to  the  College  ser- 
vice, the  faithful  and  zealous  conduct  of  af- 
fairs, which  for  eighteen  years  have  marked 
the  administration  of  Edward  H.  Magill,  as 
President  of  this  College. 

Resolved,  that  the  Secretary  be  instructed 
to  transmit  to  him  a  copy  of  these  resolutions, 
with  the  best  wishes  of  the  Board  for  the 
restoration  of  his  health  and  for  his  future 
welfare. 

M.  Fisher  Longstreth,  Secretary. 

Ever  since  the  date  of  these  resolutions, 
Sixth  Month,  1889,  I  have  kept  among  my 
treasures  the  original  copy  sent  me.  I  have 
also  a  first  copy  in  the  handwriting  of  my 
lifelong  friend  and  supporter,  Isaac  H.  Clo- 
thier, by  whom  they  were  drawn  up.  The 
second  copy  is  in  the  hand  of  the  Secretary, 
Dr.  M.  Fisher  Longstreth,  who  will  be  re- 


PRESIDENT  OF  SWARTHMORE  :  1871-90    237 

membered  as  the  friend  most  active  in  encour- 
aging my  appointment  as  submaster  in  Cherry 
Street  School,  Philadelphia.  Is  it  surprising 
that  now,  as  the  end  of  my  life  is  approaching, 
I  should  revert  with  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude 
to  the  names  of  Isaac  H.  Clothier  and  his 
uncle,  Dr.  M.  Fisher  Longstreth? 


CHAPTER  XIII 


A  year's  leave  of  absence 


1890-1891 

AFTER  commencement,  In  the  summer 
of  1889,  we  made  the  necessary  prepara- 
tions for  a  year  abroad,  in  accordance  with  the 
leave  of  absence  granted  by  the  board  of  man- 
agers. All  our  daughters  had  been  abroad,  ex- 
cept our  second  daughter,  Eudora,  and  I  was 
determined  to  give  her  the  benefit  of  a  year's 
travel  and  study.  Near  the  end  of  August 
we  three,  my  wife,  daughter  Eudora,  and  my- 
self, took  passage  for  Glasgow  on  the  steamer 
Circassia  of  the  Anchor  Line.  We  selected 
this  line  because,  though  slow,  it  was  reputed 
safe,  and  after  a  voyage  of  a  little  over  a 
week  we  reached  the  north  coast  of  Ireland, 
and  passed  quite  near.  This  was  the  first  time 
we  had  seen  the  Irish  coast  near  at  hand,  and 
as  we  steamed  by  the  Giant's  Causeway,  the 
weather  being  fine,  the  captain  kindly  slowed 
down  the  vessel  that  we  might  approach  near 


A  YEAR'S  LEAVE  OF  ABSENCE  :  1890-91    239 

enough  to  see  it  to  the  best  advantage.  It  was 
truly  a  wonderful  sight,  from  the  low  base  of 
those  great  columns  of  basaltic  rock.  We  were 
told  that  the  best  way  to  see  this  great  work 
of  nature  is  to  land,  and  walk  in  among  the 
columns,  as  in  this  way  their  regularity  and 
enormous  size  are  more  apparent. 

Near  nightfall  we  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
River  Clyde,  which  winds  through  its  rocky 
bed  ;  there  we  cast  anchor  for  some  hours  to 
await  the  tide.  At  Glasgow  we  saw  the  cathe- 
dral, and  especially  the  Necropolis,  the  city  of 
the  dead,  with  the  remarkable  inscription  over 
the  gate.  We  could  tarry  at  Glasgow  but  a 
single  night.  We  went  thence  by  rail  to  Bal- 
loch,  then  sailed  up  Loch  Lomond,  with  the 
dark  side  of  Ben  Nevis  rising  upon  our  right 
and  coming  down  steep  to  the  water's  edge. 
Some  miles  to  the  north  we  landed  and  took 
the  stage  to  the  east  side  to  Loch  Katrine, 
where  we  again  took  boat  and  sailed  among 
the  many  lovely  small  islands,  rich  in  their 
bright  autumn  coloring,  among  them  the 
charming  Ellen's  Isle.  We  wished  we  had 
brought  with  us  our  Scott  that  we  might  read 
^'  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  on  the  ground. 

We  passed  by  coach  through  the  lovely 


240  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

shaded  region  of  the  Trossaehs  where  we 
should  have  been  glad  to  spend  a  few  days  to 
enjoy  the  scenery,  but  we  passed  directly  on 
to  Aberf oyle,  and  thence  by  train  to  Stirling, 
where  we  stopped  over  night.  In  the  early 
morning  we  walked  up  to  the  castle,  whence  a 
fine  view  can  be  had  over  a  lovely  country 
of  hill  and  vale  and  distant  mountains,  but 
the  morning  being  very  misty  we  missed  that 
charming  view. 

At  Edinburgh,  we  stopped  at  a  pleasant 
hotel  on  Princess  Street,  where  the  fine  statue 
of  Walter  Scott  almost  looked  into  our  second 
story  window.  The  next  day  we  attended  ser- 
vice at  St.  Giles's,  and  in  the  afternoon  took 
a  long  drive,  visiting  Arthur's  Seat,  and  Craig- 
muUar  Castle,  near  the  University.  The  fol- 
lowing day  we  turned  our  steps  southward, 
leaving  Scotland  to  be  revisited  in  later  years. 

After  a  last  look  at  Holyrood  Castle  and 
Arthur's  Seat,  visiting,  or  rather  glancing 
at,  Melrose  Abbey,  Abbotsford,  Carlisle  with 
its  castles  and  dungeons,  and  UUswater,  we 
reached  Morland.  Here  we  passed  a  night 
with  our  friend  Charles  Thompson — a  friend 
who  had  manifested  much  interest  in  Swarth- 
more  College  in  its  early  days,  and  who  had 


A  YEAR'S  LEAVE  OF  ABSENCE:   1890-91    241 

presented  a  number  of  rare  and  Interesting 
volumes  to  the  Friends'  Historical  Library. 

As  the  year  of  absence  had  been  given  me 
by  the  board  for  purposes  of  preparation  for 
my  labor  in  the  French  professorship,  I  felt 
that  I  ought  to  get  settled  in  Paris  and  at 
work  on  my  French  —  studying  the  language 
and  selecting  books  for  the  college  library. 
With  these  plans  in  mind,  we  passed,  with  very 
brief  visits,  Keswick,  Derwent  Water,  Helvel- 
lyn,  Thurlmere,  Grasmere,  Ambleside,  Lake 
Windermere,  TJlverston,  Swarthmore  meeting 
and  Swarthmore  Hall,  Liverpool,  Chester, 
Eugby,  Warwick,  Stratford-on-Avon,  Charle- 
cote,  Kenilworth,  Stoneleigh  Abbey,  and 
Leamington.  At  London  we  visited  the  Tower, 
Westminster  Abbey,  St.  Paul's,  Guild  Hall, 
the  South  Kensington  Museum,  and  the 
British  Museum.  Thence  we  proceeded  by 
way  of  Newhaven  and  Dieppe  to  Rouen, 
where  we  had  resolved  to  spend  a  few  weeks 
in  the  study  of  French,  before  going  on  to 
Paris.  As  we  left  for  home  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  August  and  reached  Rouen  on  the 
twenty-first  of  September,  it  will  be  seen  that 
we  had  crowded  much  of  great  interest  into 
four  weeks. 


242  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Having  heard  much  of  Eouen,  and  read 
Victor  Hugo's  many  references  to  this  "  City 
of  Old  Streets,"  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  spend 
some  time  there ;  this  we  could  do  and  still 
reach  Paris  before  the  winter  lecture  courses 
fairly  began. 

Besides  the  curious  old  city  itself,  I  was 
especially  interested  in  the  statue  of  Jeanne 
Dare,  standing  near  the  spot  where  she  was 
burned  at  the  stake,  and  in  the  home  of  the 
tragedian  Corneille,  over  the  door  of  which  is 
painted  his  birth-day,  6  June,  1606.  There 
is  also  a  statue  of  Corneille,  who  was  the  real 
founder  of  French  tragedy,  and  whose  great 
work  was  "  The  Cid ; "  after  him  the  prin- 
cipal street  of  the  city  is  named.  Near  the 
city  is  a  lofty  hill  from  which  there  is  a  fine 
view  of  the  Seine  entering  through  a  gorge 
in  the  mountains  on  the  one  side,  then  after 
graceful  windings  through  fertile  meadows, 
disappearing  through  another  mountain  gorge 
to  the  north.  Few  landscape  views  are  more 
lovely  and  impressive  than  this.  On  this  com- 
manding height  has  been  lately  erected  a  fine 
statue  to  the  memory  of  Jeanne  Dare. 

The  cathedral  of  Rouen,  St.  Ouen,  is  one 
of  the  finest  in  Europe,  and  contains  within 


A  TEAR'S  LEAVE  OF  ABSENCE:  1890-91    243 

it  the  tomb  of  Kichard  Coeur  de  Lion,  with  a 
casket  containing  his  heart.  I  much  enjoyed 
the  curious  ancient  streets,  each  story  of  the 
houses  projecting  farther  out  than  the  one 
below  it,  until  but  a  very  narrow  strip  of  sky 
was  to  be  seen  from  the  street — one  would 
suppose  a  most  unhealthy  manner  of  building 
a  narrow  street.  With  much  of  interest  in 
that  old  town  still  unexplored,  late  in  October 
we  turned  our  steps  toward  Paris.  Before 
night  we  were  settled  there,  and  ready  to  give 
some  days  to  the  great  Exposition  before  the 
courses  of  lectures  reopened  at  the  Sorbonne 
and  the  College  de  France. 

Besides  some  further  study  of  French,  and 
the  selection  of  French  books  for  our  library, 
I  had  in  mind  the  selection  of  certain  works 
suitable  for  a  series  of  French  text-books  for 
class-room  use,  which  I  intended  to  publish. 
For  my  wife,  daughter,  and  self,  I  employed 
a  good  French  teacher,  as  I  had  done  in  our 
month  at  Rouen.  The  lectures  claimed  our 
chief  attention  in  the  daytime ;  evenings  were 
spent  in  reading  French  works,  from  which 
I  must  make  the  selections  for  my  "  Modern 
French  Series."  When  a  volume  was  decided 
upon,  I  made  it  a  point  to  see  or  correspond 


244  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

with  the  author,  and  obtain  his  or  her  per- 
mission to  reproduce  the  book  with  notes  of 
my  own.  I  knew  that  many  books  had  been 
thus  reproduced  in  America  (through  lack  of 
a  proper  international  copyright  law)  without 
the  permission  of  the  author,  but  I  resolved 
that  this  should  not  be  said  of  any  volume  of 
mine.  I  arranged  with  several  pubhshers  to 
take  home  a  valiseful  of  books  to  examine, 
which  involved  a  great  deal  of  reading. 

The  first  of  the  volumes  which  I  chose 
for  the  series  was  "  Le  Piano  de  Jeanne/'  an 
interesting  and  amusing  story  by  the  dis- 
tinguished dramatic  critic  and  lecturer,  Fran- 
cisque  Sarcey.  I  visited  him  and  had  some 
difficulty  with  my  imperfect  French  (for  he 
could  speak  no  English)  in  making  him  un- 
derstand just  what  kind  of  permission  I  de- 
sired. At  length  when  I  displayed  a  paper 
for  his  signature  he  spoke  up  severely,  saying, 
"  Ah,  Monsieur  Magill,  je  me  defie  de  vous  a 
present ;  "  which  in  my  confusion  I  took  to 
mean,  "  Now  I  defy  you,"  instead  of  "I  am 
suspicious  of  you  now."  The  conversation 
was  abruptly  broken  off,  but  I  promised  to 
call  again  and  bring  with  me  a  friend  who 
spoke  both  French  and  English.  This  friend 


A  YEAR'S  LEAVE  OF  ABSENCE:   1890-91    245 

was  Professor  Emile  Levasseur,  a  lecturer  at 
the  College  de  France,  and  a  profound  stu- 
dent and  most  indefatigable  worker  with  whom 
I  had  been  acquainted  for  several  years 
through  an  introduction  by  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White.  When  we  returned  on  a  subsequent 
evening.  Professor  Levasseur  had  no  trouble, 
of  course,  in  making  M.  Sarcey  understand 
exactly  what  I  wanted. 

After  that  incident  I  had  in  M.  Sarcey  a 
good  friend  and  supporter  until  the  time 
of  his  death,  a  few  years  later.  The  three 
other  authors  chosen  were  Mme.  de  Witt, 
the  daughter  of  the  distinguished  historian, 
Frangois  Guizot ;  Anatole  France,  a  very  able 
writer,  since  made  an  Academician  ;  and  Jules 
Claretie,  then  the  eminent  director  of  the 
Comedie  Frangaise.  From  each  of  these  four 
writers,  with  their  permission,  I  selected  one 
of  the  four  volumes  which  now  constitute  my 
"  Modern  French  Series." 

During  this  winter  we  heard  several  sermons 
by  the  well-known  Pere  Hyacinthe,  and  found 
him,  as  we  expected,  a  most  interesting  man. 
He  could  speak  no  English,  as  we  learned  on 
calling  upon  him,  but  he  had  married  in  New 
York  a  young  American  lady,  whom  we  found 


246  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

a  very  entertaining  conversationist.  Her  hus- 
band left  the  conversation  of  the  evening 
mostly  to  her.  He  was  fully  convinced  that  the 
celibacy  required  of  the  Catholic  clergy  was 
a  serious  error;  and  he  called  his  church  in 
Paris,  the  "Free  Catholic  Church."  He  seemed 
at  that  time  to  have  a  pretty  large  following, 
and  we  found  him  an  excellent  pulpit  orator. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  winter  we  had  with 
us  at  our  boarding-house  Agnes  Kemp  and 
her  daughter  Marie,  who  later  became  profes- 
sor of  German  at  Swarthmore  College. 

As  spring  and  the  milder  weather  came  on, 
we  visited  various  places  of  interest  in  and 
near  Paris.  From  Antwerp  we  sailed  for  home 
on  the  tenth  of  May ;  the  year  of  preparation 
for  my  work  at  Swarthmore  as  professor  of 
French  was  over,  and  I  felt  that  it  had  been 
a  successful  year.  After  a  delightful  passage 
of  eleven  days,  we  reached  home  the  twenty- 
first.  We  were  met  at  the  station  by  the  pro- 
fessors and  young  njen,  and  escorted  up  the 
asphalt  walk  to  the  front  of  the  college,  where 
the  young  women  were  gathered  to  greet  us, 
and  after  a  brief  address  of  welcome  by  Act- 
ing^President  Appleton,  and  the  singing  of 
"  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  we  were  accompanied 


A  YEAR'S  LEAVE  OF  ABSENCE  :  1890-91    247 

to  our  porch,  where  the  good-nights  were  ex- 
changed. 

Soon  after  our  return,  as  my  duties  were 
not  to  begin  until  autumn,  with  my  daughter 
Beatrice  I  attended  the  Indian  conference 
at  Lake  Mohonk,  on  the  invitation  of  Al- 
bert Smiley,  —  as  I  had  done  several  times 
before  and  continued  to  do  for  some  years 
longer.  Before  leaving  home  I  gave  a  recep- 
tion to  my  French  classes,  which  was  fully 
attended,  and  much  enjoyed  by  us  all.  My 
fine  strawberry-beds  of  several  varieties  were 
just  in  their  prime,  and  did  their  full  share  in 
furnishing  provisions  for  this  and  later  recep- 
tions. After  our  return  from  Mohonk  we 
enjoyed  numerous  social  occasions  with  the 
students  at  our  home  and  in  the  college,  and 
received  many  visits  from  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. 

My  time  was  much  occupied  in  arranging 
the  French  books  brought  from  abroad,  and 
in  getting  ready  for  my  new  duties.  The  pros- 
pect of  this  work,  with  no  confining  presidential 
duties  to  occupy  my  attention,  I  found  really 
dehghtful.  The  very  thought  of  it  was  restful, 
after  the  laborious  and  anxious  years  toward 
the  close   of   my  presidency.  I   have   often 


248  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

thought  and  spoken  of  those  years  as  a  period 
in  which  I  was  never  occupied  for  a  moment 
that  I  did  not  feel  that  several  other  duties 
claimed  my  attention  at  the  same  time.  The 
question  was,  from  early  morning  till  late  in 
the  evening,  Which  of  the  half-dozen  impera- 
tive duties  shall  I  perform  first,  and  which  of 
them  can  best  wait  its  turn  on  a  later  day  ? 
The  wonder  to  me  now  is  that  in  such  a  dis- 
tracted condition  of  mind  I  did  not  lose  my 
mental  powers. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PBOFESSOE   OF   FRENCH   IN   SWARTHMORE 

COLLEGE 

1891-1901 

ON  beginning  my  French  classes  in  the 
autumn  of  1891,  it  was  apparent  to  me 
that  the  French  grammars  then  in  use  would 
not  answer  my  purpose,  as  I  wanted  to  teach 
by  a  much  simpler  system  than  any  of  those 
employed,  and  to  make  use  of  many  rules  and 
short  cuts  of  my  own  devising.  Especially 
did  I  find  that  the  forms  of  the  verbs  could 
be  more  readily  taught  by  a  classification  of 
my  own.  As  long  before  as  the  later  of  the 
eight  years  of  my  submastership  in  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Latin  School,  I  had  taken  several 
bright  students  through  the  shorter  methods 
of  which  I  speak,  and  some  of  these  did  better 
later  with  the  master,  Dr.  Gardner,  and  after- 
wards at  Harvard,  than  those  who  had  pur- 
sued the  regular  course.  When  I  suggested 
my  plan  to  Dr.  Gardner  he  replied  kindly,  but 


260  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

in  his  brusque  manner,  "Teach  them  your 
own  way,  Mr.  Magill ;  I  don't  care  how  you 
get  the  knowledge  into  them,  if  it  is  only 
there."  I  found  that  my  own  "  Complete 
French  Grammar,"  published  in  the  latter 
years  of  Latin  School  work,  would  not  answer 
my  purpose  at  all,  full  as  it  was  of  matters  of 
detail.  I  now  preferred  a  much  shorter  course, 
and  this  I  outhned  in  MS.  It  was  not  long 
before  I  got  out  another  French  grammar; 
and  because  I  taught  only  the  essentials  in  it, 
I  called  it  a  "  Reading  French  Grammar." 

I  taught  one  or  two  of  my  classes  from 
my  MS.,  and  when  the  new  grammar  was 
ready  it  was  a  relief.  The  particular  method 
of  presenting  the  French  verbs  and  the  for- 
mation of  the  parts  from  the  few  forms  called 
^^The  Principal  Parts"  were  at  that  time  not 
to  be  found  in  so  simple  a  form  in  any  of 
the  French  grammars  which  I  had  seen,  but 
the  idea  has  been  adopted  in  several  grammars 
which  have  appeared  since  mine.  Perhaps  I 
may  have  suggested  the  idea  to  some  of  their 
authors,  but  of  that  I  naturally  do  not  feel 
sure.  It  matters  not ;  it  was  the  better  way, 
and  the  question  as  to  who  may  have  origi- 
nated it  I  make  no  concern  of  mine. 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:   1891-1901        251 

With  the  aid  of  this  "Reading  French 
Grammar  "  I  soon  taught  my  classes  to  begin 
reading  before  the  end  of  the  first  week's 
study ;  and  all  my  teaching  was  directed  to- 
ward this  practical  end,  thus  making  the  lan- 
guage far  more  interesting  and  attractive. 

The  truth  would  seem  to  be  that  our  pre- 
sent methods  of  acquiring  a  foreign  language 
are  unreasonable,  and  destined  to  disappear 
from  the  class-room  in  the  near  future.  Who 
studies  classified  lists  of  names  in  natural  his- 
tory, for  example,  without  any  previous  know- 
ledge of  the  things  represented  by  these 
names?  It  is  just  so  in  studying  foreign 
words ;  words  express  ideas,  and  these  must 
be  in  sentences,  long  or  short,  before  the  idea 
can  be  expressed.  Students  should  see  French 
words  for  the  first  time,  not  in  a  grammar  or 
a  dictionary,  but  in  the  sentences  where  they 
belong.  I  am  very  sure  that  this  Une  of 
thought  will  be  followed  out  by  the  generation 
of  teachers  now  coming  on  the  stage. 

I  might  not  be  so  well  convinced  of  this  had 
I  not  made  practical  appUcation  of  it  in  the 
case  of  one  of  mature  mind  —  who  could  read 
ordinary  French  in  a  few  months,  and  who,  in 
the  past  two  years,  has  read  the  New  Testa- 


262  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

ment  in  French,  and  a  good  deal  of  the  Old 
Testament,  besides  several  French  works  of 
well-known  authors.  This  person  has  not  had 
a  verb  to  conjugate,  or  been  forced  to  learn 
any  of  the  details  commonly  found  in  our 
grammars.  Nor  is  this  student  deficient  in 
understanding  the  language  when  the  appeal 
is  made  to  the  ear  instead  of  the  eye.  Of 
course  I  speak  of  a  mature  and  well-trained 
mind,  yet  this  has  been  accomplished  in  the 
midst  of  many  duties  and  cares. 

After  my  "  Reading  French  Grammar  "  was 
completed  I  turned  my  attention  to  obtaining 
good  and  interesting  reading  matter  for  my 
classes,  and  for  this  purpose  my  "Modern 
French  Series  "  of  four  volumes  was  brought 
out.  To  complete  the  series  more  easily,  I 
spent  several  vacation-times  in  Paris.  These 
volumes  were  so  selected  that  the  students 
would  be  inclined  to  read  them,  primarily,  for 
the  story  told,  and  would,  in  a  measure,  forget 
that  the  object  of  the  lesson  was  training  the 
eye,  ear,  and  hand  in  the  French  language. 
First  came  the  training  of  the  eye  to  know 
the  words  as  used  in  sentences,  when  seen ; 
then  the  ear,  to  recognize  the  same  words  and 
sentences  when  heard  3  and  lastly  the  hand, 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        253 

to  write  the  language  when  it  was  read  or 
spoken.  The  primary  part  of  this  teaching 
was  begun  after  two  or  three  lessons  spent  in 
explaining  the  sounds,  and  accustoming  the  ear 
to  hear  and  the  tongue  to  utter  these  sounds, 
the  first  practice  being  upon  the  French  alpha- 
bet, which  the  students  were  trained  to  repeat, 
singly  and  in  concert,  in  the  first  few  lessons. 
Others  may  find  fault  with  this  system,  but  I 
think  that  my  course  was  different  in  several 
respects  from  that  usually  followed. 

Brief  conversations  on  other  topics  than 
those  in  the  book  were  gradually  introduced. 
Soon  after  the  first  few  weeks,  brief  dictees 
would  be  written  —  short  test  sentences  from 
the  lesson  of  the  day,  in  modified  forms.  Jn 
using  my  own  "  Reading  French  Grammar  " 
I  required  all  the  French  examples  to  be  trans- 
lated both  ways  —  from  French  into  English 
and  from  English  into  French  ;  this  was  done 
viva  voce  when  seen  or  heard. 

Another  feature  of  the  book  was  that  the 
exercises  were  so  arranged  that  I  spent  no 
time  out  of  class  in  correcting  written  exer- 
cises. This  labor,  or  rather  drudgery,  I  always 
considered  the  least  productive  of  good  results. 
But  such  corrections  must  be  made,  and  how  ? 


254  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

By  a  proper  use  of  the  blackboards.  These  I 
had  permanently  ruled  in  columns  and  num- 
bered. Out  of  class  I  put  on  slips  of  paper 
English  sentences  covering  the  points  to  be 
illustrated  in  the  lesson,  and  placed  one  of 
these  papers  at  the  foot  of  each  ruled  column, 
on  the  chalk-shelf.  In  my  forty-five  minutes 
(the  length  of  our  class  periods)  I  called  on 
the  pupils  to  go  to  the  board,  place  their 
names  at  the  head  of  the  ruled  columns,  and 
put  the  English  sentences  on  the  papers  into 
good  idiomatic  French.  Of  these  columns  there 
were  twelve ;  —  in  this  way,  I  could  call  on 
all  of  a  class  of  twenty-four  in  the  forty-five 
minutes,  have  the  French  written  on  the 
board,  and,  what  is  of  the  greatest  importance, 
have  it  all  corrected  before  the  class,  giving 
the  reasons  for  each  correction.  Thus  I 
wasted  no  time  out  of  class  in  poring  over 
papers  to  be  carefully  corrected  and  returned 
to  the  student,  with  complicated  explanations. 
These  many  students  never  even  look  at,  but 
consign  to  the  fire  unread. 

The  interest  thus  inspired  in  a  class  is  truly 
remarkable,  and  the  progress  is  rapid.  The 
attention  of  all,  while  each  correction  is  being 
made  and  explained,  makes  a  profound  im- 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        255 

pression,  and  saves  a  great  deal  of  time.  Others 
may  follow  similar  courses  now,  but  I  have 
never  been  present  in  a  school  where  such  a 
system  was  practiced.  I  give  this  here  as  an 
important  feature  of  my  work  in  French. 

It  was  quite  early  in  the  opening  year  of 
my  professorship  of  French  that  I  introduced 
a  system  of  international  correspondence  be- 
tween our  students  of  French  and  French 
students  in  France  who  were  studying  Eng- 
lish. It  was  a  system  devised  by  Professor 
Mieille  in  southern  France,  and  had  made  con- 
siderable headway  among  students  of  French 
in  Eno^land  and  those  in  France  who  were 
studying  English.  But  the  length  of  time 
required  to  cross  the  ocean  had  prevented 
its  earlier  introduction  here.  Each  student 
wrote  a  letter  in  the  foreign  language  and 
sent  it  abroad  to  a  student  in  the  foreign 
country  whose  name  and  address  had  been 
given  him.  A  general  bureau  in  each  country, 
where  letters  were  sought,  being  established, 
the  students  being  once  paired,  each  received 
the  foreign  letter,  written  in  his  own  language, 
and  sent  it  back  to  the  writer  properly  cor- 
rected. In  this  way  the  idioms  in  common  use 
in  both  languages  were  taught  to  the  foreign 


256  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

student^  instead  of  the  more  formal  mode  of 
speech  found  in  books.  A  slight  attempt  had 
been  made  in  this  direction  by  my  son-in-law, 
Professor  Thomas  A.  Jenkins,  while  teaching 
French  in  Vanderbilt  University,  and  so  far 
as  known  his  was  the  first  work  of  this  kind 
attempted  in  this  country;  but  we  got  it  into 
working  order  at  Swarthmore,  and  after  start- 
ing thus  in  the  French  department,  it  was 
also  undertaken  in  the  department  of  Ger- 
man—  the  bureau  of  the  United  States  being 
thus  established  at  Swarthmore.  A  slight 
charge,  to  cover  actual  expenses  of  postage 
and  stationery,  was  made.  This  work  became 
after  a  time  so  laborious,  although  very  pro- 
fitable to  the  students,  that  I  arranged  later 
with  Professor  B.  L.  Battin  of  the  German 
department  and  Professor  Isabel  Bronk  of  the 
French  department  to  give  assistance  in  their 
respective  departments.  It  was  thus  carried 
on  successfully  for  some  time,  and  was  recog- 
nized by  the  Modern  Language  Association 
of  America,  in  which  we  were  appointed  a 
committee  on  this  subject,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years  several  thousand  students  in 
France,  Germany,  England,  and  the  United 
States  were  thus  paired,  and  gained  many  de- 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        257 

cided  advantages  in  the  study  of  the  foreign 
language.  But  to  give  attention  to  all  the 
needed  details  involved  so  much  labor,  both 
in  term  time  and  vacation,  that  for  the  past 
few  years  it  has  been  entirely  given  up,  and 
the  committee  of  the  Modern  Language  Asso- 
ciation has  been  released  at  their  own  request. 
I  mention  here  this  work  in  the  hope  that 
some  of  my  readers  may  see  a  more  practical 
and  simple  way  of  introducing  this  interchange 
of  letters  in  various  countries,  and  thus,  in 
time,  the  nations  may  be  more  closely  united 
—  and  universal  peace  come  as  a  natural  re- 
sult —  for 

**  Mountains  interposed  make  enemies  of  nations, 
Who  had  else  like  kindred  drops  been  mingled  into  one." 

Before  passing  to  a  further  consideration  of 
the  work  of  my  regular  professorship,  I  may 
say  that  there  were  other  interests  connected 
with  that  opening  year,  some  wholly  personal, 
and  others  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  college 
in  a  larger  sense  than  could  any  personal  af- 
fairs of  my  own.  It  was  the  year  of  Professor 
Appleton's  incumbency  of  the  presidency,  as 
he  had  accepted  the  appointment  for  that  year 
alone. 

About  the  time  of  the  opening  in  Septem- 


258  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

ber,  my  eldest  daughter,  Helen,  who  has  been 
named  as  one  of  the  six  graduates  of  our  first 
class  in  1873,  was  married  to  the  Hon.  An- 
drew D.  White.  The  marriage  took  place  in 
the  president's  house,  which  we  occupied  that 
year.  The  ceremony  was  in  the  usual  form  of 
Friends,  and  it  had  been  arranged  for  Edward 
Everett  Hale  to  read  the  marriage  certificate, 
but  he  being  necessarily  absent,  that  impres- 
sive service  was  performed,  at  my  request,  by 
my  friend  Isaac  H.  Clothier. 

After  the  wedding  I  turned  with  renewed 
interest  to  my  duties  in  the  college  as  a  simple 
professor.  Having  had  so  many  subjects  re- 
ferred to  me  during  my  presidency,  on  enter- 
ing upon  these  later  duties  I  resolved  that  it 
should  never  be  said  of  me  that  I  assumed,  by 
the  slightest  impHcation,  any  authority  which 
belonged  properly  to  the  president.  When 
my  counsel  was  asked  by  our  president,  or  the 
faculty,  I  gave  them  the  best  that  my  experi- 
ence enabled,  and  felt  that  the  counsel  asked 
being  thus  given,  I  had  no  authority  to  carry 
it  farther. 

■  It  is  so  often  seen  and  said  that  one  in  the 
position  of  ex-president  through  former  habit 
is  in  danger  of  giving  counsel  unasked ;  and, 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        259 

"what  is  even  worse  for  all  concerned,  of  en- 
deavoring to  urge  this  counsel  unduly.  Of 
course,  I  observed  with  great  interest  what  had 
been  my  work  in  the  past  now  progressing  un- 
der the  direction  of  others,  and  nothing  could 
be  more  encouraging  or  pleasant  to  me  than 
to  see  theirs,  from  added  experience,  surpassing 
my  own,  as  time  passed  on.  I  may  say  here 
that  I  have  never  had  cause  to  regret,  for  a 
single  day,  my  laying  down  the  presidency, 
and  having  it  pass  into  other  hands. 

In  the  way  of  retrospect,  at  this  writing 
(1905),  or  sixteen  years  later,  I  may  say  that 
the  constant  progress  of  the  college  has  be- 
come to  me  increasing  cause  for  gratitude  and 
consolation.  How  often  have  I  said  that  one 
of  our  best  and  most  active  managers,  John 
D.  Hicks,  spoke  with  truly  prophetic  vision 
when  he  said  that  in  the  time  to  come  the 
early  founders  would  find  that  they  were 
^^  building  better  than  they  knew." 

Aside  from  my  duties  as  professor  of 
French,  I  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  re- 
ligious situation »  of  the  college.  This  being 
the  case,  I  was  called  to  speak  to  our  students 
in  our  First-day  (Sunday)  morning  meetings 
on    subjects    connected    with   their    highest 


260  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

interests,  and  upon  which  I  felt  at  times  that, 
whether  professor  or  president,  I  could  not 
keep*silent.  In  addressing  the  students  I  had 
a  constant  desire  to  speak  as  if  assuming  no 
authority  but  such  as  any  concerned  Friend 
on  the  faculty  might  properly  exercise.  I  be- 
lieve that  in  this  statement  all  the  presidents 
who  have  followed  me — Presidents  Appleton, 
De  Garmo,  Birdsall,  and  President  Swain  now 
in  ofi&ce — would  unanimously  agree.  As  the 
last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  passed, 
and  the  first  of  the  twentieth  approached,  this 
religious  concern  seemed  to  grow  upon  me, 
and  up  to  the  hour  of  this  writing  it  has  con- 
tinued with  me.  I  had  no  fixed  and  formal 
creed  to  promulgate,  no  really  new  truths  to 
utter;  the  burden  seemed  to  be  the  impropri- 
ety of  narrow  sectarian  preaching  and  of  the 
promulgation  of  fixed  forms  of  creed.  I  urged 
that  our  religion  should  be  one  involving  our 
lives,  conduct,  and  character. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  I  endeavored  to 
secure  in  our  town  of  Swarthmore  (and,  as  a 
means  to  this  end,  with  the  approval  of  the 
president  of  the  college)  the  union  of  the 
various  churches  in  the  services  of  Thanks- 
giving day.  Dr.  Jackson,  minister  of  the  Pres- 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        261 

byterian  church,  was  from  the  beginning  my 
zealous  supporter  in  this  undertaking;  and 
the  first  of  these  union  meetings  was  held 
in  his  church.  I  was  appointed  to  give  the 
Thanksgiving  sermon. 

The  next  year  a  similar  union  Thanks- 
giving service  was  held  in  the  Union  church, 
and  Dr.  Jackson  delivered  the  sermon.  The 
church  was  well  filled  with  representatives 
of  all  the  denominations  except,  I  think,  the 
EpiscopaUans.  They  thought  it  right  to  hold, 
as  on  the  previous  year,  separate  services  in 
their  own  church. 

The  following  year  I  proposed  that  the 
Friends  should  come  next  in  turn.  After 
obtaining  the  consent  of  our  president,  I  ap- 
plied next  to  the  managers;  and  their  con- 
sent being  obtained,  the  house  was  opened — 
it  being  the  first  time,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
that  a  meeting-house  of  ours  had  been  opened 
for  such  a  purpose.  The  meeting  was  a  most 
impressive  one,  and  the  house  was  well  filled 
with  our  own  members  and  members  of  all 
the  other  churches  in  town,  except  the  Episco- 
paUans. There  were  seven  or  eight  who  spoke, 
and  our  Friends  and  others  said  of  it  that  it 
was  a  very  satisfactory  and  impressive  service. 


•  262  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

It  was  desired  by  the  committee  in  charge 
that  the  services  in  each  church  should  be 
the  same  in  form  as  that  observed  by  the 
denomination.  The  fourth  year  it  seemed 
that  the  time  had  now  come  for  us  to  hold 
the  services  in  the  Episcopal  church,  if  the 
members  would  consent  and  unite  with  us. 
The  rector,  Mr.  Matos,  said  he  could  not  give 
permission  without  consulting  the  bishop.  On 
making  the  request,  the  bishop  replied  that 
he,  as  bishop,  could  not,  by  their  rules,  give 
consent,  but  if  Mr.  Matos  thought  that  the 
conditions  in  the  neighborhood  made  it  de- 
sirable to  open  the  church  for  that  purpose, 
he  would  not  forbid  it,  but  leave  it  to  the 
discretion  of  the  minister  in  charge.  We 
three,  Mr.  Jackson,  Mr.  Matos,  and  myself, 
met  in  a  committee,  and  made  the  arrange- 
ments for  opening  the  church,  it  being  under- 
stood that  the  Episcopalians  would  hold  a 
separate  service  of  their  own  at  an  earlier 
hour  on  Thanksgiving  morning.  We  also 
decided  to  ask  President  Birdsall  to  make  the 
address.  Thanksgiving  day  came,  and  all  went 
ofP  as  arranged ;  the  house,  being  small,  was 
crowded,  seats  and  aisles,  to  the  door.  The 
services  were  such  as  Episcopalians  would  ap- 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        263 

prove,  with  singing,  responses,  etc.,  and  Presi- 
dent Birdsall  made  a  wise,  careful,  and  in 
every  way  most  satisfactory  address.  After 
the  meeting  was  over,  general  congratulations 
were  in  order  and  freely  expressed.  We  felt 
assured  that  now,  since  the  four  churches  had 
each  been  thus  opened  on  four  Thanksgiving 
days,  a  movement  toward  church  unity,  at 
least  in  Swarthmore,  had  been  fairly  made. 
Thus  the  union  service,  at  Swarthmore,  on 
Thanksgiving  day  was  established.  In  this 
work,  tending  to  bring  the  various  denomi- 
nations nearer  together,  and  to  make  them 
see  more  clearly  that,  whatever  their  forms  of 
worship  may  be,  they  are  really  one  in  spirit, 
my  heart  was  deeply  interested. 

During  my  year's  leave  of  absence,  at  the 
close  of  my  presidency,  as  Professor  Appleton 
had  accepted  the  presidency  only  temporarily, 
the  board  naturally  felt  some  anxiety  as  to 
my  permanent  successor.  They  were  con- 
stantly on  the  lookout  for  a  suitable  person ; 
but  no  one  was  presented  who,  in  every  re- 
spect, satisfied  the  wishes  of  that  governing 
body.  The  same  anxiety  continued  after  my 
return.  In  the  fall  of  that  year,  1890,  a  suit- 
able man  was  found.    This  man  was  William 


264  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Dudley  Foulke,  son  of  Thomas  Foulke,  of  New 
York;  he  was  elected  to  the  office  Twelfth 
Month  (December)  first,  1890.  On  Second 
Month  (February)  twenty-eighth,  his  brother- 
in-law  was  accidentally  killed  on  the  railroad, 
and  the  duties  of  administrator  of  the  large 
property  of  the  wife  devolved  upon  him.  On 
the  same  day,  Clement  M.  Biddle  met  the 
faculty  and  students,  and  announced  that 
President-elect  Foulke  had  withdrawn;  this 
was  after  the  invitations  had  been  already 
issued  for  his  inauguration.  It  was  a  great 
disappointment,  as  all  were  rejoicing  in  the 
prospect  of  a  permanent  president,  especially 
as  the  man  chosen  was  a  well-known  member 
of  the  Foulke  family  —  a  family  known  as  con- 
nected, for  some  generations,  with  school  and 
meeting  interests  among  Friends.  Perhaps 
the  best  known  of  this  family  was,  next  to 
William  D.  Foulke,  Joseph  Foulke,  whose 
boys'  school,  and  whose  ministry  in  our  So- 
ciety, were  very  widely  known.  One  of  this 
family,  too,  had  been  almost  the  first  of 
Swarthmore's  superintendents  —  the  genial, 
kindly  spirited  Thomas  S.  Foulke,  whose  wife, 
Phebe  W.,  was  the  matron  of  the  college  in 
its  earlier  years,  being  the  successor  of  the 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        265 

first  year's  matron,  Helen  G.  Longstreth.  All 
of  these  connections  had  made  our  board  feel 
well  satisfied  in  the  anticipated  inauguration 
of  one  so  well  known  and  so  highly  esteemed 
for  himself,  and  of  such  a  family,  as  William 
Dudley  Foulke. 

The  board  now  began  to  feel  anxious  lest 
the  ofSce  of  president  would  not  be  filled  in 
time  to  make  the  necessary  preparations  for 
the  next  college  year,  and  I  was  requested  by 
some  of  the  more  active  members  of  the  board 
to  aid  them  in  finding  a  good  successor  to 
President  Appleton.  To  do  this  I  found  it 
expedient  to  close  my  French  classes  early, 
and  to  start  West  to  see,  before  commence- 
ment-time, some  desirable  men  of  whom  I 
knew  through  my  connection  with  various 
educational  associations.  I  wished  to  judge 
of  their  work  before  they  had  left  for  the 
summer  vacation. 

After  visiting  several  of  these  who,  in  my 
mind,  were  promising  candidates,  I  heard  of 
one  who  seemed  to  me  the  most  promising. 
After  some  correspondence  with  this  profes- 
sor, I  arranged  for  a  meeting  with  him  at 
the  Palmer  House,  Chicago.  This  man  was 
Charles  De  Garmo.    Although  not  a  Friend 


266  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

in  name,  he  was  one  in  principle,  and  I  felt 
assured  that  his  being  of  a  Friends'  family 
would  help  him  with  our  board.  That  he  was 
of  such  a  family  I  considered  to  be  of  impor- 
tance on  their  account;  but  that  he  was  a 
scholar  and  a  born  educator  was  what  I  quickly 
discovered.  This,  in  my  mind,  was  of  far 
greater  importance  than  the  family  to  which 
he  belonged,  if  he  was  to  attempt  to  make  our 
college  take  an  honored  place  among  the  col- 
leges of  our  State  and  country. 

Professor  De  Garmo  was  a  graduate  of  the 
State  Normal  University  of  Normal,  Illinois. 
He  had  been  principal  of  the  public  shools  of 
Naples,  Illinois,  for  three  years ;  then  assist- 
ant training-teacher  at  the  State  Normal  Uni- 
versity. He  had  studied  in  Germany,  and 
taken  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  at  Halle  Univer- 
sity; he  had  then  been  professor  of  modern 
languages  for  several  years  in  his  Alma  Mater, 
and  had  been  professor  of  psychology  there 
one  year  when  we  met  in  Chicago.  All  these 
facts,  and  the  strong  personality  of  the  man 
himself,  decided  me  very  soon  to  request 
Clement  M.  Biddle,  then  one  of  the  most  ac- 
tive members  of  our  board,  to  telegraph  Pro- 
fessor De  Garmo  at  once  to  meet  the  board  at 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        267 

Swarthmore.  Upon  this  he  promptly  started 
east,  met  the  board,  and  was  elected,  after  the 
first  interview,  without  a  dissenting  voice. 

I  may  mention  here  that  Clement  M.  Biddle 
added  to  his  many  favors  before  rendered  the 
gift  of  a  sum  of  money  to  pay  my  travel- 
ing expenses  that  summer,  when  in  search  of 
a  president.  I  am  not  sure  that  any  other 
person  knows,  to  this  day,  of  this  but  myself. 
Thus  he  consistently  followed  the  precept: 
^^Let  not  thy  right  hand  know  what  thy  left 
hand  doeth."  This  was  all  the  more  noble  in 
one  with  whom  I  had  been  compelled  to  dif- 
fer so  often  in  important  matters  connected 
with  the  management  of  the  college. 

I  have  always  felt  that  in  securing  Charles 
De  Garmo  as  our  president  I  did  a  real  ser- 
vice to  the  college.  His  services  were  well 
appreciated  by  the  board  and  the  faculty,  and 
he  was  successful  as  a  governor  of  young 
men.  Through  his  influence  in  the  West  a 
number  of  excellent  students  were  attracted  to 
Swarthmore.  His  ability  to  train  teachers,  as 
shown  by  his  excellent  classes  in  pedagogics, 
was  highly  appreciated  by  the  board,  and  by 
all  of  us  who  were  associated  with  him. 

Not  many  years  after  the  appointment  of 


268  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Dr.  De  Garmo,  who  each  year  better  satisfied 
me  that  our  board  had  made  no  mistake  in 
his  appointment,  he  called  me  into  his  office 
one  day  and  informed  me  that  he  had  been  in- 
vited to  accept  a  professorship  of  pedagogics 
at  Cornell  University.  Situated  as  he  was  at 
Swarthmore,  and  knowing  how  much  I  de- 
sired him  to  remain,  he  was  at  first  inchned 
to  refuse  this  flattering  offer ;  but  because 
at  Cornell  he  would  be  in  charge  of  the  very 
department  in  which  he  felt  the  most  interest, 
he  had  concluded  to  resign  the  presidency  and 
accept  the  position  at  Cornell.  Deeply  disap- 
pointed though  I  was,  I  could  see,  knowing  the 
situation  and  all  the  circumstances  as  I  did, 
that  I  should  have  done  the  same  were  our 
positions  reversed.  I  could  not  censure  him  ; 
and  one  of  the  first  questions  that  I  asked 
him  was  whom  he  considered  as  best  qualified 
to  take  his  place.  He  at  once  named  William 
W.  Birdsall,  whose  successful  work  as  princi- 
pal of  Friends'  School  at  Fifteenth  and  Kace 
streets  he  had  noted  and  admired.  I  saw  Wil- 
liam W.  Birdsall  at  once,  and  asked  him  if  he 
would  accept  the  presidency  if  it  were  offered 
him,  and  although  quite  hesitant  at  first,  he 
promised  to  accept  if  elected  by  the  board. 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        269 

The  result  is  well-known.  President  Bird- 
sail  gave  us  a  few  years  of  good  service,  both 
by  his  work  in  the  college  and  whenever  he 
spoke  in  public  meetings  on  matters  of  col- 
lege concern.  At  length,  finding  that  the 
work  of  a  college  —  to  which  he  was  not 
accustomed  —  was  not  well  suited  to  him,  he 
was  released  at  his  own  request.  Some  two 
years  later  he  accepted  the  headship  of  the 
Girls'  High  School  in  Philadelphia,  a  highly 
important  and  influential  position. 

At  the  beginning  of  my  professorship  of 
French,  with  my  warm  friend  for  many  years, 
Professor  Appleton,  as  president,  with  work 
no  longer  scattered  and  distracting,  and  with 
health  renewed  by  a  year's  respite  from  labor, 
I  could  repeat  with  deep  feeling  the  words 
of  the  Psalmist:  "My  lines  have  fallen  in 
pleasant  places ;  I  have  a  goodly  heritage." 
With  renewed  health  and  courage  I  looked 
forward  to  the  future  of  the  college,  and  an- 
ticipated for  it  a  fulfillment  of  the  highest 
hopes  of  its  early  founders.  It  seemed  not  un- 
reasonable to  suppose  that  I  might  yet,  within 
the  limits  of  my  own  lifetime,  see  those  earnest 
hopes  fulfilled.  Knowing  how  long  it  had 
taken  the  two  leading  colleges  at  that  time, 


270  LIFE   OF  A  TEACHER 

Yale  and  Harvard,  to  develop  into  colleges  of 
the  highest  grade  before  claiming  the  name 
of  universities,  I  felt  that  our  comparatively 
rapid  growth  was  now  cause  for  gratitude  to 
the  Great  Giver  of  all  things. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  my  great  interest 
in  my  class-room  work,  and  my  desire  to  make 
the  work  there  easy,  pleasant,  and  attractive 
to  the  students.  I  had  at  this  time  frequent 
talks  with  President  Appleton  about  the  old 
idea  of  making  work  hard  for  students.  We 
agreed  that  the  great  business  of  the  teacher 
should  be  to  make  more  smooth  and  plain 
the  road  to  the  temple  of  knowledge,  and  not 
to  increase  the  stumbling-blocks  on  the  way. 
Culture,  we  were  also  agreed,  was  not  advanced 
by  many  features  of  the  antique  methods. 
Hence  it  was  that  in  my  "Modern  French 
Series  "  I  made  the  notes  full  and  clear.  So 
much  attention  did  I  give  to  this  that  a  re- 
viewer of  my  books,  Mr.  Talcott  Williams, 
speaking  of  my  notes,  called  them  the 
"  crutches  which  I  offered  to  help  students  on 
their  way."  I  was  not  in  the  least  troubled  by 
this  criticism,  for  I  believed  that  "  crutches  " 
to  aid  were  far  preferable  to  stumbling-blocks 
to  hinder — which  latter  would  be  in  accord- 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH  :  1891-1901        271 

ance  with  the  old  idea  of  giving  the  mind 
strength  by  heavy  work. 

To  select  the  four  volumes  for  my  "Modern 
Series  "  of  which  I  have  spoken,  I  passed  the 
summer  of  1893  in  Paris,  with  my  future  son- 
in-law,  Thomas  A.  Jenkins,  a  graduate  of  our 
class  of  1887,  engaged  since  his  graduation  to 
my  youngest  daughter.  His  marriage,  which 
had  been  postponed  some  years  that  he  might 
complete  his  education  at  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, took  place  at  our  Swarthmore  home 
in  June  of  the  following  year  (1894).  He 
was  soon  after  appointed  to  a  professorship  of 
Romance  languages  at  Vanderbilt  University, 
Nashville,  Tennessee. 

After  teaching  French  several  years,  the 
work,  including  the  necessary  correction  of 
papers,  began  to  wear  upon  me,  and  I  saw  that 
some  assistance  would  soon  be  necessary.  I 
decided  that  I  had  better  resign  the  professor- 
ship of  French,  and  ask  to  retain  connection 
with  the  college  as  lecturer  on  French  litera- 
ture. In  suggesting  a  successor  (although  I 
have  always  feared  the  nepotism  which  some 
men  have  indulged  in)  I  could  not  lose  the 
opportunity  of  securing  a  good  professor  be- 
cause he  was  my  son-in-law.    I  urged  President 


272  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Birdsall  to  go  and  see  Professor  Jenkins  at 
his  work  in  Vanderbilt  University,  in  which 
I  had  been  assured  he  was  making  good  suc- 
cess. I  offered  to  aid  the  department  by  a 
course  of  lectures,  at  a  much  reduced  salary, 
as  I  knew  the  college  could  not  pay  a  pro- 
fessor properly  and  continue  my  salary  after 
my  partial  retirement.  On  President  Bird- 
sail's  return  he  reported  to  me  that  his  visit 
had  been  a  satisfactory  one.  I  felt  sure, 
although,  with  his  usual  caution,  he  did  not 
say  so,  that  I  should  be  released  and  that  my 
place  would  be  taken  as  I  proposed. 

I  had  spent  the  summer  vacation  of  1899 
with  my  son-in-law  and  his  family  in  Nash- 
ville, and  found  there  comfort  and  consolation 
after  the  death  of  my  wife,  who  passed  away 
a  few  months  before,  after  a  long  and  painful 
illness.  Under  the  circumstances  the  com- 
panionship of  my  youngest  daughter,  Marian, 
her  husband,  and  their  three  children,  was  a 
comfort  and  a  solace,  and  the  memory  of 
that  sad  but  happy  summer  is  ever  before  me. 
I  returned  to  Swarthmore,  where  my  third 
daughter,  Beatrice,  then  at  the  head  of  our 
department  of  art,  as  she  had  been  for  several 
years,  spent  with  me  the  following  year  in 


PROFESSOR  OF  FRENCH:  1891-1901        273 

the  pleasant  home  of  my  good  friend,  Profes- 
sor Beardsley,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  in  these 
memoirs.  Although  supplied  with  an  assistant 
and  with  aid  in  correcting  the  written  work  in 
French,  my  work  wore  upon  me  very  much, 
and  I  spent  weeks  confined  to  my  chamber — 
the  first  time  I  had  lost  so  many  consecutive 
days  since  the  opening  of  the  college  in  1869. 
The  vacation  of  the  following  summer,  1900, 
I  spent  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  with  the 
family  of  Professor  Jenkins,  who  had  left 
Vanderbilt  University,  and  by  the  invitation 
of  President  Harper  was  teaching  in  the  sum- 
mer session  of  Chicago  University. 


CHAPTER  XV 

PROFESSOR    EMERITUS 
1901 

IT  had  been  decided  that  Professor  Jenkins 
should  assume  my  place  at  Swarthmore  in 
the  autumn,  and  we  had  much  to  confer  upon, 
busy  though  he  was  with  his  summer's  work 
at  Chicago.  During  these  conferences  I  was 
more  convinced  than  ever  that  with  him  as 
permanent  head  the  department  would  fall 
into  safe  hands.  It  was  especially  satisfactory 
to  me  that  my  successor  was  one  of  our  own 
graduates. 

My  health  was  still  somewhat  frail  from 
overwork,  but  by  care  I  gave  my  course  of 
lectures  to  general  satisfaction.  During  the 
winter  President  Harper,  who  had  carefully 
observed  Professor  Jenkins's  work  at  Chi- 
cago, and  being  ever  on  the  lookout  for  good 
teachers,  sent  him  an  invitation  to  accept 
a  professorship  of  Romance  languages  in  the 
University  of  Chicago.   As  my  son-in-law  was 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  275 

thus  invited  to  go  up  higher,  and  with  a 
salary  considerably  in  advance  of  what  we 
could  then  afford,  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
decline  the  offer.  Nor  could  I  urge  him  to  do 
so.  I  saw  then,  as  I  had  seen  for  some  time 
past,  that  unless  Swarthmore  had  much  larger 
endowments  than  she  had  as  yet  secured, 
we  should  lose  our  best  professors,  year  by 
year,  as  they  would  receive  better  offers  else- 
where. 

Thus  it  was  that  one  year  was  all  that  it 
was  permitted  us  to  enjoy  together  in  our 
home  on  Elm  Street.  To  succeed  my  son-in- 
law,  the  board  secured  the  services  of  Dr. 
Isabel  Bronk,  who  had  completed  a  post-grad- 
uate course  in  Chicago  and  taken  there  the 
doctor's  degree.  But  the  reader  will  ask.  How 
could  so  competent  a  person  be  thus  readily 
obtained,  to  fill  a  position  left  vacant  by  one 
who  had  gone  up  higher  ?  Much  as  I  regret 
to  say  it,  it  was  because  the  services  of  women 
are  still  underpaid ;  they  are  not  yet  paid  (as 
they  surely  will  be  at  no  distant  day)  the  same 
salaries  as  men,  though  they  do  the  same 
work.  Indeed,  I  must  assert  that  with  equal 
educational  opportunities,  if  there  be  any  dif- 
ference in  the  quality  of  the  work  done  by 


276  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

professors  or  teachers,  it  is  likely  to  be  in 
favor  of  women.  This  positive  statement  may 
be  denied  to-day,  but  the  time  is  coming,  and 
is  not  far  distant,  when  it  will  be  no  longer 
questioned.  But  with  the  resources  of  the  col- 
lege so  limited,  Swarthmore  could  not  then 
take  this  stand. 

My  daughter  and  her  family  must  now  leave 
me  to  make  their  home  in  Chicago,  where,  at 
the  university,  the  work  of  her  husband  was 
likely  to  be  required  for  many  years.  With 
Professor  Bronk  to  train  the  classes  in  French, 
when  the  summer  vacation  began,  all  seemed 
plain  for  the  coming  year.  It  was  arranged 
that  my  daughter  Beatrice  should  reside  with 
me  in  Elm  Street,  where  we  had  spent  the 
previous  year. 

It  was  during  the  vacation  of  1901  that  I 
renewed  my  acquaintance  with  one  who  had 
for  a  number  of  years  made  a  happy  home  for 
my  second  daughter,  Eudora,  in  New  York 
city,  where  the  latter  is  employed  in  the  astro- 
nomical department  of  Columbia  University. 
Little  had  I  dreamed  that,  as  the  evening  of 
a  busy  life  was  approaching,  there  was  still 
reserved  for  me  the  glory  of  the  evening  star, 
in  the  prospect  of  a  renewal  of  domestic  life. 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS  :  1901  277 

As  a  result,  my  health,  much  broken  by  the 
anxieties  and  sorrows  of  the  few  preceding 
years,  rapidly  recovered,  and  after  the  sum- 
mer vacation  was  over  I  returned  to  my  work 
as  lecturer  on  the  French  language  and  lit- 
erature for  the  following  year.  My  daughter 
Beatrice  and  myself,  with  our  housekeeper, 
now  constituted  the  family.  As  we  were  both 
lecturers  at  the  college,  we  read  our  lectures 
to  each  other,  and  profited  mutually  by  our 
criticisms  of  each  other's  work. 

By  permission  of  President  Birdsall,  my 
course  of  lectures  was  slightly  shortened  to 
prepare  for  my  marriage,  which  took  place  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  1902.  Two  days 
later  my  wife  and  I  set  sail  for  Europe,  to 
spend  about  four  months  in  traveling  in 
Italy,  Switzerland,  Austria,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Germany,  France,  and  England.  Many  of  the 
places  we  then  visited  were  seen  by  myself  for 
the  second  or  third  time,  but  all  were  new  to 
my  wife. 

During  those  four  months  of  travel  we  read 
a  great  deal  together,  and  I  found  that  my 
"  life  as  a  teacher "  was  far  from  ended ;  I 
now  resolved  to  put  into  practice  what  I  had 
come  to  beUeve  in  more  and  more,  i.  e.  that 


278  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

In  studying  a  new  language  no  grammar 
should  be  taught ;  or  rather  not  until  facility 
in  reading  and  some  facility  in  speaking  be 
first  attained.  I  began  at  once  with  an  easy 
and  interesting  specimen  of  the  literature  of 
the  French  language ;  told  my  wife  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  as  she  first  saw  them  in  their 
places  in  the  text,  translating  them  at  once 
into  English,  without  pronouncing  the  French. 
Before  our  journey  of  four  months  was  over, 
she  had  read  a  number  of  French  books,  un- 
derstanding them  as  well  as  though  they  were 
written  in  English.  Thus  the  eye  was  first 
trained. 

Later  on,  after  our  return,  I  taught  her  the 
pronunciation  of  the  words ;  and  notwithstand- 
ing the  many  cares  of  a  very  busy  life,  she 
could  soon  recognize  the  words  without  seeing 
them  when  they  were  pronounced,  the  ear  be- 
ing thus  trained  after  the  eye.  It  is  true  that 
the  mind  with  which  I  had  to  deal  was  a  mind 
naturally  very  bright  and  active,  and  that  my 
wife  had  had  excellent  training  in  her  own 
language  in  her  earlier  years.  With  the  prac- 
tice that  she  has  had  in  French  thus  far,  she 
reads  and  understands  French  books,  without 
translation,  about  as  well  as  she  could  were 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  279 

they  printed  in  English,  and  this  too  without 
a  conscious  attempt  to  express  the  thought  in 
Enghsh  words.  - 

I  may  remark,  in  passing,  that  a  friend  re- 
cently from  Paris  brought  us  four  little  vol- 
umes by  Claude  Marcel,  pubHshed  by  Larousse, 
by  which  the  French  are  taught  English  in 
the  way  I  have  here  described.^  M.  Marcel 
explains  in  detail  the  natural  course  to  pursue 
in  teaching  English  to  French  people ;  in  his 
simple  reasoning  he  follows  exactly  the  course 
which  I  have  pursued,  and  for  similar  reasons. 
To  teach  the  reading,  speaking,  and  writing 
of  any  new  language,  this  is  the  method  that 
is  destined  to  be  generally  adopted  in  the 
future.  Although  at  one  time  I  was  inclined 
to  ridicule  Dr.  Sauveur  and  his  system  of 
teaching,  attacking  first  the  language  as  it  is 
spoken,  before  analyzing  it  and  dwelHng  upon 
the  theory  of  its  construction,  I  am  now  in- 
clined to  beheve  that  he  was  right,  and  that 
the  rapid  methods  of  the  Berlitz  schools  of 
languages  are  based  upon  a  sound  and  sensible 
foundation. 

^  This  is  the  title  of  the  little  series  :  Methode  RationellCy 
suivant  pas  a  pas  la  marche  de  la  nature  pour  apprendre  a  lirCf 
a  entendre,  a  parler,  et  a  ecrire  C anglais. 


280  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

During  our  four  months  abroad,  President 
Birdsall  having  resigned,  the  board  were  seek- 
ing a  proper  person  to  assume  the  presidency 
of  Swarthmore.  I  had  had  no  word  from  the 
college  since  we  left  New  York  at  the  end  of 
April,  and  as  I  was  sitting  on  the  upper  deck 
of  a  small  steamer  on  Lake  Como,  some  one 
who  knew  me  placed  upon  the  table  before  me 
a  copy  of  an  American  newspaper.  On  tak- 
_^  ing  it  up,  a  marked  article  showed  the  reason. 
\y  It  was  a  notice  that  the  board  of  managers 
of  Swarthmore  College  had  offered  the  presi- 
dency to  Joseph  Swain,  president  of  Indiana 
University,  who  had  been  well  known  to  me 
for  several  years.  His  response  to  the  offer 
was  stated  to  be  that  he  would  accept  only  on 
condition  that  an  effort  should  be  made  to 
raise  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  additional 
endowment  within  three  years.  At  that  time 
the  college  had  an  endowment  of  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  about  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  of  which  was  not  general  endowment, 
but  was  for  scholarships.  The  additional  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars  proposed  would 
bring  our  total  endowment  up  to  a  million 
-^dollars. 

I  wrote  President  Swain  immediately,  urg- 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS  :  1901  281 

ing  his  acceptance  only  on  the  terms  which  he 
had  named,  as  such  endowment  was  absolutely 
essential  to  the  proper  growth  and  development 
of  the  college.  He  has  since  informed  me  that 
he  received  my  encouraging  note,  but  as  his 
conditions  had  already  been  made,  it  was  rather 
in  the  nature  of  a  confirmation  of  the  policy  al- 
ready determined  upon,  than  otherwise.  That, 
however,  was  all  I  expected  to  accomplish. 

The  stipulated  period  of  three  years  ended 
at  the  commencement  of  1905,  and  six  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  had  been  raised  within  that  time. 
Thus  the  million-dollar  limit  which  had  been 
set  was  considerably  more  than  reached  within 
the  time  designated.  About  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  of  the  addition  has  been  used 
to  build  Wharton  Hall  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  young  men,  for  a  Hall  of  Chemistry, 
and  for  new  shops  for  the  engineering  depart- 
ment. There  was  a  general  rejoicing  at  the  ^ 
commencement  of  1905,  for  then,  at  last,  after 
its  long  struggles,  Swarthmore  had  become 
one  of  the  few  colleges  in  our  country  which 
have  an  endowment  of  a  million  dollars. 

When  the  news  of  the  probable  appointment 
of  President  Swain  reached  us,  we  were,  as  I 


282         ,  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

have  said,  in  northern  Italy  on  Lake  Como. 
We  had  crossed  the  ocean  in  a  North  German 
Lloyd  steamer,  going  direct  to  Naples.  Being 
south  of  the  usual  line  of  travel,  we  saw  the 
charming  shores  of  the  Azores.  At  Gibraltar 
we  longed  to  stop  and  at  least  set  foot  on  the 
great  rock  which  with  the  rock  on  the  Afri- 
can coast  opposite  were  called  by  the  ancients 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  beUeved  to  be 
the  western  limit  of  the  earth.  But  there 
was  only  time  for  a  short  stop  at  Gibraltar, 
and  the  next  day  but  one  we  were  safely 
landed  in  Naples.  Here  we  were  met  by  a 
very  superior  guide,  interpreter,  and  lecturer 
employed  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Howard  Paine,  in 
whose  party  we  traveled.  He  took  efficient 
charge  of  us  at  once,  relieving  us  all  of  the 
anxiety  attendant  upon  traveling  arrange- 
ments abroad. 

We  visited  the  principal  places  in  Italy : 
Naples,  Pompeii,  and  Sorrento;  then  Rome, 
Florence,  Pisa,  and  Venice;  then  the  Italian 
Lakes,  crossing  the  Simplon  Pass  and  visit- 
ing Mont  Blanc,  Chamounix,  Geneva,  Inter- 
laken  (whence  I  cabled  congratulations  to 
the  Swarthmoreans  on  their  commencement 
day),  the  Righi  with  its  steep  ascent  and  cold 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  283 

snowy  summit,  where  we  had  the  usual  ex- 
perience of  failing  to  see  the  sun  rise  the  next 
morning. 

From  Interlaken  we  went  directly  to  Mu- 
nich, where  we  took  leave  of  our  party  to  make 
a  detour  of  a  day  to  see  Nuremberg.  We  had 
counted  much  on  having  the  companionship 
of  my  daughter  Helen  and  her  family  during 
some  weeks,  and  we  felt  especially  fortunate 
in  this,  as  it  was  the  last  year  that  Mr.  White 
would  be  in  Germany,  he  having  decided  to 
resign  after  his  long  diplomatic  career.  Mrs. 
White  had  advised  us  to  see  Nuremberg  on 
the  way  to  join  them.  It  was  time  well  spent, 
and  few  if  any  days  of  our  travel  were  more 
rich  in  interest. 

The  house  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  great 
painter,  sculptor,  and  engraver,  was  one  of 
the  first  places  we  visited.  It  is  no  longer 
private  property,  but  has  been  purchased  by 
the  government.  A  house  near  it,  once  the 
elegant  home  of  the  wealthy  Peller  family,  is 
now  stored  with  antiquities  and  curiosities  of 
all  kinds  for  sale.  The  old  walls,  moats,  and 
ancient  gates,  relics  of  a  bygone  age,  are  of 
great  interest.  The  moats,  no  longer  filled  with 
water,  are  now  flower  gardens  and  pleasant 


284  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

walks,  forming  seeming  fragments  of  a  small 
park.  In  the  various  museums,  private  and 
public,  are  relics  of  a  former  barbarous  age  in 
the  shape  of  horrible  instruments  of  torture 
of  every  kind;  we  saw  several  churches  cen- 
turies old,  which  were  originally  Catholic  but 
changed  into  Protestant  churches  at  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  with  the  stipulation  that 
they  should  be  preserved  in  the  gorgeous  style 
in  which  they  were  first  built. 

Nuremberg  was  for  a  time  the  residence  of 
Melanchthon,  the  follower  and  fellow-laborer 
of  Luther.  In  the  afternoon  of  this  our  one 
day  at  Nuremberg,  where  one  could  well  have 
spent  a  month,  we  took  trolley  and  rode  a 
short  distance  to  the  cemetery.  There  we  saw 
evidences  in  abundance  of  the  honor  in  which 
labor  was  held  by  this  people.  The  chief  orna- 
ments on  the  tombs  were  the  forms  of  objects 
most  closely  connected  with  the  life  of  the 
sleeper  below:  anvils  for  blacksmiths;  plows 
for  farmers;  lap-stones  for  shoemakers; 
saddles  for  harness-makers.  On  the  tomb  of 
Albrecht  Diirer  was  carved  in  large  letters  the 
single  word  ^'  EmigravitJ^  The  following 
lines  of  Longfellow  are  beautifully  descrip- 
tive :  — 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  285 

"  Here,  when  Art  was  still  religion,  with  a  simple,  reverent 

heart, 
Lived  and  labored  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  Evangelist  of  Art ; 

"  Hence  in  silence  and  in  sorrow,  toiling  still  with  busy  hand, 
Like  an  emigrant  he  wandered,  seeking  for  the  Better  Land. 

"Emigravit  is  the  inscription  on  the  tombstone  where  he 

lies  ; 
Dead  he  is  not,  but  departed,  —  for  the  artist  never  dies. 

"  Fairer  seems  the  ancient  city,  and  the  sunshine  seems  more 

fair, 
That  he  once  has   trod  its  pavement,  that  he   once  has 

breathed  its  air." 

Hans  Sachs,  the  cobbler  poet  and  satirist, 
was,  next  to  Diirer,  the  most  famous  citizen  of 
Nuremberg  in  the  earlier  days. 

The  following  day  we  joined  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
White  at  Schandau  on  the  Elbe,  where  they 
were  resting  and  recruiting  in  a  delightfully 
quiet  retreat  in  the  heart  of  the  remarkably 
picturesque  region  of  Swiss  Saxony.  We  took 
a  long  carriage  ride  the  next  day,  passing 
through  deep  valleys.  The  clifPs  on  either  side 
of  the  valleys  rose  to  a  great  height,  some  of 
them  a  thousand  feet  or  more.  The  tops  of 
these  mountains  looked  like  great  castles,  and 
when  seen  from  a  distance  seemed  constructed 
by  human  hands. 


286  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

We  soon  decided  that  it  would  be  better  to 
locate  for  a  time  in  Dresden.  Mr.  White  was 
called  to  Berlin  on  business,  and  the  rest  of 
us  took  up  our  quarters  in  the  Hotel  Bellevue 
in  Dresden,  situated  on  the  Opernplatz.  We 
went  to  hear  Wagner's  "  Die  Meistersinger," 
and,  the  opera  being  a  long  one,  the  curtain 
rose  according  to  custom  at  six  o'clock.  Just 
at  the  opening  of  the  third  of  the  four  acts, 
in  the  middle  of  a  scene,  we  were  startled  by 
the  sudden  dropping  of  the  curtain,  and  in 
a  moment  a  man  stepped  before  it  and  an- 
nounced the  death  of  King  Albert  of  Saxony. 
He  had  been  very  ill  for  some  time  and  his 
death  had  been  hourly  expected.  The  opera 
house  was  at  once  closed,  and  the  city  was 
in  mourning  for  days.  The  body  was  brought 
to  Dresden  from  his  summer  home  in  Silesia, 
and  the  procession  which  formed  in  the  streets 
made  that  portion  of  the  city  where  we  were 
almost  impassable.  On  the  day  of  the  funeral 
there  were  many  thousands  of  strangers 
thronging  the  streets  of  Dresden.  Conspicu- 
ous among  them  were  the  diplomats  of  most 
of  the  countries  of  Europe  in  their  gorgeous 
court  costume,  among  whom  Mr.  White,  in 
simple  citizen's  dress,  represented  the  Ameri- 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS  :  1901  287 

can  Republic.  The  funeral  services  were 
in  the  cathedral,  where  the  body  had  lain  in 
state  for  two  days,  in  which  space  of  time 
the  number  of  persons  who  passed  through  in 
long  procession  certainly  amounted  to  many 
thousands. 

The  kings  of  Saxony  have  been  Catholics 
for  several  generations,  though  their  subjects 
are  largely  Protestant.  When  Germany  ac- 
quired Poland,  it  was  agreed  that  Saxony,  to 
which  that  part  of  Poland  belonged,  should 
be  always  under  a  Catholic  king.  It  was 
stipulated  in  the  compromise  that  every  king, 
should  bring  up  one  of  his  children  in  the 
Protestant  faith ;  but  no  king  since  then  has 
left  any  children,  and  the  late  king  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  nephew,  who  on  accepting  the 
crown  must  become  a  Catholic.  What  a  mock- 
ery upon  religion,  which  should  be  a  matter 
involving  the  daily  life  and  personal  charac- 
ter without  reference  to  the  form  of  belief. 
But  the  world  advances  slowly,  and  it  is  likely 
that  many  generations  will  pass  before  religion 
and  the  actual  life  are  identical. 

We  did  not  remain  long  in  Dresden  after 
the  funeral  of  King  Albert,  making  another 
visit  to  the  remarkable  shores  of  the  Elbe  near 


288  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

s 

and  above  Schandau.  Before  the  end  of  June 
we  reached  Berlin  with  Mrs.  White.  We 
found  the  American  ambassador  temporarily- 
located  at  the  Kaiserhof ;  an  office  elsewhere 
answering  the  purposes  of  the  embassy.  Our 
government  was  the  only  one  represented  at 
Berlin  which  had  not  provided  a  residence  for 
its  ambassador.  Mr.  White  had  so  planned  his 
business  that  he  could  give  us  a  good  deal  of 
time  in  the  last  days  of  June  and  the  first 
days  of  July. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  Mr.  and  Mrs.  White 
took  us  for  a  long  drive  through  Berlin  and 
its  suburbs.  Mr.  White  pointed  out  to  us  the 
countless  palaces  and  statues,  the  more  an- 
cient dating  back  to  the  time  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  long  before  Prussia  became  a  part 
of  the  German  Empire.  A  great  deal  of  the 
modern  statuary  that  adorns  the  streets  has 
been  set  up  since  the  Franco-Prussian  war. 
I  have  never  seen  any  other  city  so  profusely 
adorned  with  statuary,  much  of  it  equestrian. 
Many  of  these  statues  were  pointed  out  to  us 
as  the  finest  of  their  kind  in  the  entire  world. 
We  took  supper  in  the  evening  in  an  open- 
air  restaurant.  The  number  of  persons  pre- 
sent, enjoying  the  music,  the  promenade,  the 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  289 

grove,  and  the  eating  and  drinking,  must 
have  been  many  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands. 
There  were  many  such  places  open  in  differ* 
ent  parts  of  the  city  during  the  fine  weather 
of  the  warm  season.  We  soon  saw  that  the 
enjoyment  of  the  few  weeks  before  us  in  Ber- 
lin was  likely  to  be  far  beyond  what  we  had 
imagined. 

On  the  first  Sunday  after  our  arrival  we  at- 
tended the  American  Church  and  heard  Dr. 
Dickie,  who  had  done  so  much  here  at  home 
in  America  and  abroad  to  build  it  up.  There 
we  met  several  former  students  of  Swarthmore 
College  who  had  come  to  Berlin  to  complete 
their  education.  With  them  we  met  Frau  Dr. 
Hempel,  who  was  guiding  many  of  them  in 
their  advanced  studies.  We  saw  much  of  her 
before  our  final  departure  from  Berlin.  She 
impressed  us  as  one  of  the  most  cultivated 
and  best-educated  women  we  had  met  in 
Germany.  Students  coming  abroad  esteemed 
themselves  fortunate  in  securing  her  services. 

We  found  in  the  Industrial  Museum  a 
number  of  interesting  collections  showing 
the  progress  of  the  industrial  arts  for  several 
hundred  years.  We  much  enjoyed  visiting 
the  wonderful  porcelain  works  at  Meissen,  and 


290  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

the  great  ancestral  castles  of  the  Saxon  kings 
near  by. 

Our  stay  with  my  daughter,  Mrs.  White, 
including  the  visit  at  Schandau,  the  Elbe 
valley,  Dresden,  Meissen,  Berlin,  Potsdam 
and  vicinity,  occupied  us  two  delightful 
weeks.  She  went  on  with  us  to  Wittenberg, 
Weimar,  and  Eisenach,  taking  as  our  guides 
Dr.  Dickie  and  Frau  Dr.  Kempel.  At  Wit- 
tenberg we  saw  much  connected  with  the 
two  great  leaders  of  the  Reformation,  Luther 
and  Melanchthon,  visiting  the  houses  where 
they  spent  most  of  their  lives,  and  where  they 
died,  and  their  tombs  in  the  principal  church 
of  the  little  town.  The  life-sized  statues  of 
both  stand  in  the  entrance  court  of  the  town- 
hall.  Of  these  great  leaders  the  townspeople 
are  reasonably  proud.  Their  forms  and  faces 
indicate  the  character  of  the  two  men.  Lu- 
ther's burly,  lusty  form  and  his  large,  full, 
German  face  show  the  man  to  blaze  the  way 
through  the  impenetrable  forests  of  the  super- 
stition of  his  time.  Melanchthon's  slender 
figure  and  refined  face,  and  his  gentle  benign 
expression  indicate  the  loving  spirit  of  the 
man  who  was  so  much  pained  by  the  contro- 
versies in  what  professed  to  be  the  church  of 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  291 

Christ,  that  when  asked  on  his  deathbed  what 
he  most  desired  he  replied,  "  That  I  might 
see  perfect  harmony  restored  between  the 
members  of  the  church  of  Christ." 

Our  Weimar  visit  greatly  increased  our 
interest  in  Goethe  and  Schiller  as  being  the 
place  where  they  spent  a  large  part  of  their 
lives,  and  wrote  their  imperishable  works.  To 
walk  the  streets  where  they  walked,  and 
breathe  the  air  which  they  breathed,  gives  one 
a  thrilling  sense  of  delight  indescribable  in 
words.  It  has  been  said  that  Luther,  in  a  way, 
constructed  the  German  language  by  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  and  by  his  numerous 
other  works,  and  it  may  be  said  that  while 
Luther  gave  permanent  form  and  rugged 
thought  to  the  language,  Goethe  and  Schiller 
gave  it  the  beauty  which  it  not  improperly 
claims. 

The  tombs  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  are  not 
shown,  as  they  are  in  a  vault  at  a  distance 
from  the  city,  which  was  made  especially 
for  the  reigning  dukes  of  Weimar.  Schiller, 
being  poor  when  he  died,  was  at  first  interred 
in  a  kind  of  compartment  vault,  which  was 
then  considered  more  respectable  than  being 
buried  in  the  cemetery.    No  memorial  marks 


292  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

the  site.  After  ten  years,  when  the  burial 
vault  was  built  for  the  ducal  family,  Goethe 
had  the  remains  of  Schiller  removed  to  it,  and 
there  arose  some  confusion  about  the  skull. 
Goethe  had  three  skulls  before  him  on  his 
table,  trying  to  discover  which  was  genuine, 
a  question  finally  decided  on  the  evidence 
of  an  old  servant  who  judged  by  the  teeth. 
If  Schiller  had  not  died  so  young  he  would 
doubtless  have  received  as  much  attention  as 
Goethe.  Although  he  is  a  more  popular  poet 
to-day  in  Germany,  both  are  idolized.  There 
is  a  great  archive  building  in  Weimar  devoted 
to  their  works  and  the  literature  connected 
with  them:  there  is  much  more  relating  to 
Goethe  than  to  Schiller.  It  is  well  known 
that  Goethe  occupied  a  prominent  place  in 
Weimar,  was  appointed  to  important  positions 
by  the  grand  duke,  and  was  financially  very 
differently  situated  from  his  intimate  friend 
Schiller. 

On  leaving  Weimar  we  visited  Eisenach, 
where  the  ancient  castle  on  a  high  peak 
near  the  town  and  a  walk  through  a  wonder- 
ful valley  were  the  greatest  attractions.  The 
castle  was  in  charge  of  Major  von  Cranach 
(a  descendant  of  the  great  painter)  to  whom 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  293 

Mrs.  White  had  given  us  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion when  she  left  us  to  join  Mr.  White  at 
Leipsic,  where  he  was  to  give  a  Fourth  of  July 
address  the  following  day.  As  we  wound  up 
the  zigzag  road  reaching  the  height  where 
the  castle  stood,  a  man  coming  down  met  us 
and  inquired  if  we  had  a  letter  to  the  major. 
We  gave  him  the  letter,  and  he  soon  disap- 
peared. On  reaching  the  castle  we  found 
quite  a  company  of  travelers  there,  and  after 
waiting  some  time  the  doors  were  opened  and 
a  guide  appeared,  who  took  the  whole  com- 
pany into  the  castle,  conducting  us  through 
the  various  rooms,  explaining  what  we  saw  in 
German.  But  German,  alas,  was  a  sealed  book 
to  us.  We  saw  the  fine  pictures  and  statuary, 
the  ancient  walls  and  furniture,  and  enjoyed 
the  fine  views  from  some  of  the  windows, 
though  we  felt  disappointed  to  hear  no  word 
from  the  major.  But  as  we  came  out  the 
major's  man  met  us  at  the  door,  and  when  I 
gave  him  my  card  he  took  us  back  through 
several  rooms  to  which  the  general  company 
had  not  been  admitted,  and  informed  us  that 
the  major  had  been  called  away  that  morning 
after  receiving  our  telegraphic  message,  and 
had  directed  him  to  take  his  place  and  give  us 


294  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

special  attention.  The  rooms  then  shown  us 
were  those  of  the  grand  duke,  and  were  oc- 
cupied by  Goethe  when  he  was  a  student  in 
Eisenach ;  we  saw  also  a  number  of  pictures 
of  the  Goethe  family.  It  was  a  most  interest- 
ing supplement  to  the  visit  to  Weimar  the 
previous  day. 

We  afterwards  took  the  walk  through  the 
deep  narrow  valley  called  the  Drachenslust, 
and  the  Hohe  Sonne,  and  it  was  a  strange 
experience  indeed.  For  a  part  of  the  way 
there  was  a  narrow  footpath,  the  cliflPs  rising 
almost  perpendicular  several  hundred  feet, 
the  sides,  as  high  up  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
covered  with  green  moss,  and  so  near  together 
that  the  path  was  often  too  narrow  for  two 
persons  to  walk  abreast.  We  both  felt  that 
there  was  some  remote  danger  of  a  loosened 
stone  falling  upon  us  from  above. 

Our  next  objective  point  was  Frankf ort-on- 
the-Main ;  here  we  stopped  at  the  Frankfurter 
Hof.  The  next  morning  we  drove  some  hours 
about  the  city,  visiting  the  house  of  Goethe's 
father,  were  shown  the  room  where  the  poet 
first  saw  the  light,  a  room  now  devoted  to  an 
exhibit  of  many  things  connected  with  his 
early  life ;  saw  pictures  of  him  and  his  parents 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  295 

at  different  periods  of  their  lives,  and  went 
through  the  garden  which,  as  a  child,  he  so 
much  enjoyed ;  drove  over  the  Main  to  the 
museum,  and  passed  rather  rapidly  through  Its 
many  rooms  of  fine  paintings,  seeing  several 
of  Albrecht  Diirer's  and  some  exquisite  Dutch 
interiors  by  various  .artists.  In  three  of  the 
open  squares  of  the  city  are  famous  monu- 
ments, one  a  statue  of  Goethe,  one  of  Schil- 
ler, and  one  on  which  are  placed  standing  the 
three  claimants  to  the  honor  of  the  Invention 
of  movable  types  for  printing  —  men  without 
whose  Invention  the  works  of  the  two  great 
poets,  Goethe  and  Schiller,  could  never  have 
been  so  widely  known.  These  three  men.  In 
the  order  of  merit  as  here  understood;  are 
Gutenberg,  Faust,  and  Schoeffer. 

In  the  afternoon  we  took  cars  for  Homburg, 
about  forty  minutes'  ride,  where  the  German 
emperor  has  a  schloss  or  castle.  It  Is  a  re- 
storation of  an  ancient  castle,  done  In  the  most 
gorgeous  style.  We  were  shown  through  the 
sumptuously  adorned  rooms.  The  floors  were 
as  smooth  as  mirrors;  at  the  entrance  were 
long  rows  of  slippers,  a  pair  of  which  each 
of  us  was  required  to  put  on  over  our  shoes 
to  save  the  floors.    When  at  Homburg  we 


296  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

had  not  learned  of  an  old  Roman  camp  hav- 
ing been  discovered  within  a  few  years.  It 
was  uncovered  when  digging  some  wells,  and 
much  work  had  been  done  to  restore  it  to  its 
original  condition.  In  a  museum  here  we  saw 
many  things  found  in  these  excavations. 

From  Frankfort  we  visited  Heidelberg  and 
its  ruined  castle,  well  known  to  be  the  most 
striking  and  impressive  pile  of  ruins  in  Europe. 
The  broad  view  over  the  fertile  fields  of  the 
valley  of  the  Neckar,  with  the  distant  Rhine 
on  the  western  horizon,  once  seen  is  never 
to  be  forgotten. 

We  took  steamer  on  the  Rhine  on  our  way 
to  Cologne,  not  stopping  even  at  the  attrac- 
tive heights  of  St.  Goar  and  Rhinefels,  as  I 
had  done  on  my  first  visit,  in  1868.  In  some 
respects  the  Hudson  surpasses  the  Rhine,  but 
the  castles  and  towers  make  the  latter  far 
more  impressive,  because,  in  connection  with 
natural  scenery,  they  give  evidence  of  the 
work  of  human  hands.  One  always  experi- 
ences, when  traveling,  a  sense  of  added  beauty 
when  natural  scenery  is  vivified  by  human 
interests.  That  day's  trip  upon  the  Rhine  in- 
cluded the  most  interesting  part  of  the  valley. 

At  Cologne  we  visited  the  cathedral,  with 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  297 

its  gorgeous  stained-glass  windows  and  its  fine 
pictures.  We  went  up  on  the  outside  to  high 
points,  and  found  very  curious  and  interesting 
the  great  flying  buttresses,  the  statues,  and 
the  great  bells,  the  largest  rung  only  four 
times  a  year  and  requiring  the  labor  of  twenty- 
four  men.  From  the  highest  story  we  had  an 
extensive  view  of  the  Rhine,  the  city,  and  the 
surrounding  country.  In  traveling  one  should 
always  get  as  many  views  from  high  places 
as  possible,  as  they  fix  in  the  mind  the  various 
objects  seen,  and  give  one  pictures  which  hang 
forever,  while  life  lasts,  on  memory's  wall. 

At  Antwerp  we  made  but  a  brief  stay,  but 
saw  some  of  the  works  of  the  two  great  paint- 
ers, Rubens  and  his  pupil  Van  Dyke.  We 
greatly  enjoyed  Ruben s's  Elevation  of  the 
Cross,  and  his  Descent  from  the  Cross  in  the 
cathedral ;  and  in  the  museum  the  Crucifixion 
and  the  Adoration.  These  four  pictures,  with 
their  brilliant  coloring,  are  truly  wonderful 
and  wholly  baffle  description.  In  the  Cruci- 
fixion one  can  almost  in  reality  see  the  blood 
gushing  from  the  side,  as  the  Roman  soldier 
plunges  in  his  spear. 

We  now  had  Paris  before  us,  and  as  we 
wished  to  spend  some  weeks  there,  our  journey 


298  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

must  continue  as  direct  as  possible,  although 
we  were  sorely  tempted  to  turn  aside  and  visit 
Ghent  and  Bruges.  But  these,  like  so  many- 
other  places  and  objects  of  interest,  had  to  be 
reserved  for  a  future  visit.  As  I  wished  to 
make  our  Paris  visit  as  profitable  as  possible 
to  the  one  student  upon  whom  my  principal 
teaching  was  now  exercised,  my  wife,  we  de- 
cided to  take  up  our  quarters  near  the  Arc  de 
Triomphe,  at  the  home  of  Professor  Charles 
Marchand,  who  had  been  recommended  to  us  as 
a  good  teacher  of  his  native  language,  and  to 
whom  many  teachers,  professors,  and  diplomats 
from  America  have  gone  to  acquire  a  practi- 
cal speaking  knowledge  of  French.  But  we 
found  that  if  we  were  to  do  the  sight-seeing 
that  we  planned  during  a  stay  of  three  weeks 
in  Paris,  we  could  not  spend  much  time  with 
a  French  teacher  except  in  conversation  at 
table.  As  the  new  Paris  subway,  the  Metro- 
politan, passed  our  door  in  Avenue  Kleber, 
and  thence  under  the  Avenue  of  the  Champs 
Elysees,  we  used  it  almost  daily  to  visit  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde,  the  Louvre,  the  Made- 
leine, the  Chatelet,  the  Tour  St.  Jacques,  which 
commands  a  wide  view  over  the  city,  the  Pan- 
theon, Notre  Dame,  the  garden  of  the  Tuile- 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  299 

ries,  the  Saint-Chapelle,  the  Palais  de  Justice, 
the  Eiffel  Tower,  the  Eue  de  la  Paix,  the 
Opera,  and  countless  other  places  of  interest 
in  that  great  city,  which  the  French  have  some 
reason  to  consider  the  capital  of  the  world. 

We  made  a  visit  to  my  friend  and  corre- 
spondent of  several  years.  Professor  Gaston 
Mouchet,  who  teaches  English  and  French  to 
French  students  in  the  Ecole  Colbert.  He  had 
been  my  efficient  assistant  in  carrying  on  the 
international  correspondence  between  students 
in  French  and  American  colleges.  We  dined 
on  another  occasion  with  Professor  E.  Levas- 
seur,  of  the  College  de  France,  who  has  been 
one  of  my  correspondents  for  many  years,  and 
who  once  spent  a  week  with  us  at  Swarthmore, 
when  he  came  over  as  a  representative  of  his 
government  to  visit  and  report  upon  the  Ex- 
position at  Chicago. 

We  crossed  to  England  by  the  Straits  of 
Dover,  usually  a  very  rough  passage,  but  now 
perfectly  smooth,  not  a  passenger  being  ill  — 
a  great  contrast  with  my  first  trip  in  1869. 
Now,  for  the  first  time,  we  went  to  Canter- 
bury, where  we  found  the  cathedral  the  most 
magnificent  building  we  had  ever  beheld. 
Whoever  goes  to  England  ought  to  see  this 


300  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

great  cathedral.  To  describe  its  ancient  mag- 
nificence would  require  a  volume. 

In  London  we  took  quarters  for  our  few 
weeks'  stay  at  a  boarding-house  frequented 
much  by  teachers  from  abroad,  on  St.  Ste- 
phens's Road,  Bayswater,  W. ;  and  the  "Tube" 
(the  deep  underground  railroad)  being  not  far 
from  us,  we  could  enter  this  and  be  in  the 
centres  of  interest  in  a  short  time.  But  to  see 
London  one  must  not  be  too  closely  confined 
to  travel  in  "  tubes,"  —  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  feet  below  the  surface,  —  but  must 
frequently  take  cabs  and  other  surface  convey- 
ances. Through  the  winding  and  intricate 
streets  it  was  difficult  to  find  our  way  alone. 
London  being  a  great  conglomeration  of  an- 
cient villages,  the  streets  seem  to  run  toward 
every  possible  point  of  the  compass. 

Not  long  after  our  arrival  in  London  we  had 
a  call  from  Miss  E.  A.  Lawrence,  the  secre- 
tary of  Mr.  William  T.  Stead  of  the  London 
"Review  of  Reviews."  She  had  been  a  corre- 
spondent of  mine  for  some  years  in  the  matter 
of  the  international  correspondence  of  teach- 
ers and  students,  and  during  our  entire  stay 
in  London  she  was  very  kind,  doing  what  she 
could  to  make  our  visit  as  satisfactory  as  pos- 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  301 

sible.  She  accompanied  us  to  St.  Paul's,  and 
spent  some  time  with  us  in  visiting  that  his- 
torical monument,  where  lie  buried  so  many 
great  men  of  the  past :  Turner,  the  artist ; 
John  Howard,  the  great  prison  reformer;  in 
the  crypt  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  great 
architect  of  the  church,  and  Benjamin  West, 
whose  name  ought  to  be  familiar  to  every 
Swarthmorean,  as  our  "  West  House "  is 
named  for  this  painter,  Swarthmore  being  the 
place  where  he  was  born. 

We  visited  one  day  the  great  department 
store  of  Whitely,  which  is  of  immense  size.  In 
his  various  departments  he  employs  between 
five  and  six  thousand  persons.  One  of  his  fore- 
men kindly  gave  us  much  information  about 
this  great  enterprise,  a  type  of  store  in  which 
Whitely  was  the  leader,  though  his  example 
has  been  followed  by  a  number  of  others  in 
London,  and  indeed  throughout  the  world. 

One  day  we  took  the  only  boat  line  then 
ascending  the  Thames  above  London,  seeing 
the  city  from  the  river,  and  spending  a  day 
at  Hampton  Court,  where  I  had  seen  West's 
pictures  on  my  first  visit  abroad.  They  have 
been  removed  and  now  hang  elsewhere,  a  num- 
ber of  them  in  Kensington  Palace. 


302  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

Later  we  visited  the  Tower  of  London, 
of  which,  if  I  should  write  fully,  this  book 
would  be  chiefly  an  account.  A  line  from 
Miss  Lawrence  to  the  governor  of  the  Tower 
secured  us  one  of  the  best  of  guides,  whose 
mind  was  full  of  the  dark  and  bloody  his- 
tory of  the  early  days  in  England,  and  who 
told  us  much  of  it  in  a  very  clear  and  satisfac- 
tory manner.  The  great  prison-house  seemed 
a  more  dreadful  place  than  we  had  imagined, 
and  our  connection  with  a  barbarous  ancestry 
closer  than  we  had  realized. 

The  coronation  of  Edward  VII  occurred 
during  our  visit.  Tickets  to  well  located  seats 
were  sent  us  by  Mrs.  Stead,  the  wife  of 
William  T.  Stead's  son  Alfred,  with  whom, 
together  with  Miss  Lawrence,  we  took  tea  on 
the  previous  evening.  Our  seats  commanded 
a  fine  view  of  Parliament  Street,  with  the 
Parliament  Houses  on  our  right  and  West- 
minster Abbey  in  our  rear.  We  reached  our 
places  a  little  before  nine  a.  m.,  and  sat  spell- 
bound by  the  brilliance  of  the  great  proces- 
sion passing  into  and  later  out  of  the  Abbey, 
where  the  coronation  took  place.  Soldiers  in 
gay  attire  were  lined  up  in  all  directions, 
twenty-three  thousand  in  number.    Between 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS  :  1901  303 

them  filed  in  and  out  the  carriages  and  horse- 
men. An  hour  later,  after  the  coronation  cere- 
monies in  the  cathedral  were  over,  the  lines 
were  reversed,  and  they  returned  to  the  pal- 
ace and  their  several  places.  The  whole  gor- 
geous pageant  lasted  about  six  hours,  and 
more  glitter  and  gold  and  brilliant  colors  of 
every  hue  never,  I  am  sure,  met  our  eyes  be- 
fore. 

We  saw,  of  course,  the  new  king  and  queen 
in  their  royal  carriage,  drawn  by  eight  cream- 
colored  horses,  with  four  riders  on  the  horses, 
eight  footmen  walking  by  them,  two  men 
standing  behind,  and  the  driver,  all  dressed 
in  brilliant  yellow  and  black.  The  king  looked 
greatly  changed  from  the  boy  whom  I  had 
seen  on  his  visit  to  Boston  in  1860,  and  the 
queen  seemed  many  years  his  junior.  They 
are  certainly  very  popular,  and  with  good 
reason,  with  the  EngHsh  people. 

As  our  London  visit  was  drawing  toward  a 
close  we  spent  a  delightful  Sabbath  afternoon 
in  visiting  the  home  of  William  T.  Stead, 
a  zealous,  and  at  times  much  persecuted, 
worker  in  so  many  causes  for  the  progress 
of  humanity.  His  home  is  at  Wimbledon,  a 
pleasant  village  a  few  miles  up  the  river.   We 


304  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

met  here  Mr.  Kirkup,  a  very  thoughtful  con- 
tributor to  the  "  Review  of  Reviews,"  in 
whom  we  became  much  interested.  Mr.  Stead 
himself  had  been  called  away,  and  left  his 
regrets  that  he  and  his  wife  could  not  meet 
us.  Miss  Lawrence  and  one  of  the  sons  were 
at  home  to  welcome  us.  The  charming  little 
town  of  Wimbledon  is  made  up  of  a  number 
of  pleasant  villas ;  between  these  and  London 
the  broad  green  fields  of  the  valley  of  the 
Thames  are  interspersed  with  pleasant  homes. 
We  had  passed  through  the  same  valley  on 
our  way  to  Hampton  Court. 

At  Guild  Hall  we  were  greatly  interested 
in  the  antiquities  which  have  been  discovered 
many  feet  below  the  surface  in  London,  in- 
cluding reHcs  of  the  Roman  walls.  These 
"were  most  curious  and  interesting,  and  con- 
sisted of  coins,  pottery,  and  tombstones  with 
inscriptions.  At  the  British  Museum,  in  the 
brief  time  which  we  could  spare,  we  saw  pic- 
tures of  the  coronations  of  the  kings  and 
queens,  a  subject  of  deep  interest  in  England 
at  that  time,  because  of  the  recent  coronation 
of  Edward  VII  and  his  queen  Alexandra ;  also 
the  original  Elgin  marbles,  brought  from  the 
Parthenon  by  Lord  Elgin.   It  seems  to  me  a 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  305 

subject  of  much  regret  that  these  marbles 
could  not  have  been  left  in  the  place  where 
they  were  discovered,  but  it  is  scarcely  likely 
that  if  they  had  been  they  could  have  escaped 
the  mutilation  and  destruction  of  modern 
travelers,  in  their  eagerness  to  gather  relics 
and  specimens  of  the  distant  past.  In  this 
view  it  was  well  that  they  were  brought  away, 
and  thus  carefully  preserved  in  this  great 
museum. 

Toward  the  close  of  our  stay  in  London  we 
attended  one  of  the  oldest  Friends'  meetings  in 
England.  Although  we  belong  to  the  branch 
of  Friends  not  represented  there,  we  were 
kindly  received.  Three  brief  addresses  were 
given,  and  a  prayer  offered.  William  Talleck, 
a  well-known  writer  on  penology,  long  secre- 
tary of  the  Howard  Association,  cordially 
invited  us  home  to  dine.  We  had  another 
engagement,  but  made  the  visit,  a  most  inter- 
esting one,  a  few  days  later.  We  felt  that  the 
harmonious  relations  of  Friends  of  the  two 
branches  were  increasing. 

On  one  occasion  we  visited  Kensington 
Palace,  the  birthplace  of  Queen  Victoria,  and 
greatly  enjoyed  the  rooms  filled  with  memo- 
rials of  her  and  her  long  and  useful  reign. 


306  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

From  the  windows  the  views  of  the  gardens 
and  extensive  grounds  were  very  attractive. 
One  of  the  rooms  in  this  palace  was  filled  with 
Benjamin  West's  pictures,  which  hung  for  a 
long  time  in  Hampton  Court.  Another  day 
we  spent  in  Kew  Gardens  —  that  great  col- 
lection of  plants  and  trees  from  all  parts  of 
the  world. 

From  Southampton  we  took  the  steamer 
Philadelphia  for  New  York,  ninety-one  more 
passengers  being  brought  out  to  us  on  a 
lighter  from  Cherbourg.  Among  our  com- 
pany were  Chauncey  M.  Depew  and  his  young 
wife,  and  William  L.  Elkins  and  wife,  of  Phila- 
delphia, whom  I  had  long  known,  their  son 
William  L.  having  been  one  of  our  Swarth- 
more  students,  and  later  a  successful  business 
man.  We  had  on  board  apparatus  for  sending 
Marconi  wireless  messages,  and  the  captain 
kindly  had  me  shown  the  room  devoted  to 
this  purpose.  We  conversed  by  it  with  passen- 
gers on  the  steamer  Lucania,  bound  for  Eng- 
land, more  than  ten  miles  distant,  and  some 
sent  back  messages  to  their  friends.  This  is 
certainly  a  great  advance  in  telegraphy ;  in  a 
few  years  it  will  banish  much  of  the  loneli- 
ness of  the  sea. 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  307 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  voyage  we 
were  engaged  in  reading  Moliere's  play,  "  Le 
Tartuffe/'  which  we  found  most  interesting. 
We  arrived  at  New  York  on  the  twenty-fourth 
of  August,  after  an  absence  of  almost  four 
months. 

It  was  understood  at  Swarthmore  that  I 
would  give,  from  time  to  time,  lectures  on 
French  literature,  thus  lightening  the  heavy 
work  which  now  fell  upon  Professor  Bronk. 
These  were  regularly  given  twice  a  week  dur- 
ing that  winter,  and  I  found  the  pleasure  of 
thus  meeting  the  classes  on  that  familiar 
ground,  the  scene  of  my  labors  for  so  many 
years,  a  most  congenial  and  attractive  occu- 
pation. These  lectures  I  have  kept  on  file, 
where  they  now  constitute  a  considerable  part 
of  my  unpublished  manuscripts,  and  it  will 
probably  be  left  for  my  heirs  to  consider,  at  a 
later  day,  the  best  way  to  make  final  dispo- 
sition of  them.  They  cover  a  good  deal  of 
ground  in  the  history  of  French  literature, 
and  should  they  interest  others  as  much  as 
they  interested  me,  they  might  be  found,  at 
some  future  time,  worthy  of  publication. 

In  the  spring  of  1903  I  decided  that  living 
as  I  did  in  New  York,  there  was  too  much 


308  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

exposure  involved  in  continuing  a  regular 
course  of  semi-weekly  or  weekly  lectures  at 
Swarthmore,  and,  at  my  request,  I  was  kindly 
released  by  President  Swain,  with  the  consent 
of  the  board.  I  could  now  progress  more 
satisfactorily  with  my  translations  from  lead- 
ing French  dramatists,  in  which  I  had  been 
increasingly  interested  for  several  years  past. 
By  the  advice  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  whom 
I  consulted  the  year  before  his  death,  I  had 
translated  three  plays  into  English  verse,  in 
a  metre  similar  to  that  of  the  original, — Cor- 
neille's  "Le  Cid,"  Racine's  " Athalie,"and  Mo- 
liere's  ^^Le  Misanthrope."  For  several  years 
I  had  given  these  translations  in  lectures  of 
about  an  hour  each,  to  my  classes  in  French, 
and  had  several  times  been  asked  to  repeat 
them,  both  at  the  college  and  elsewhere.  In 
these  translations  I  had  selected  the  most 
thrilling  passages  of  the  play  for  rendition 
into  English  verse,  and  had  given  the  ordinary 

descriptions  and  explanatory  connections  in 
prose. 

As  I  was  about  to  begin  Victor  Hugo's 
"Hernani"  in  the  same  way,  by  the  advice  of 
a  friend  I  attempted  a  complete  rendering  of 
this  great  drama  in  Enghsh  verse,  introducing 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  309 

no  explanations  in  English.  Several  months 
were  spent  on  this  tragedy,  and,  as  I  had 
feared  from  the  beginning,  it  lacked,  when 
done,  the  clearness  and  the  interest  for  Eng- 
lish-speaking people  that  the  first  three  works 
had  inspired.  This  error  I  hope  to  correct, 
and  to  bring  the  "  Hernani "  within  the  reason- 
able compass  of  one  long  or  two  short  lectures. 
Thus  treated,  this  famous  drama  is  calculated 
to  awaken  even  greater  interest  than  the  three 
previously  treated.  If  successful  in  this  I  shall 
probably  follow  it  with  Victor  Hugo's  second 
great  play,  "  Kuy  Bias,"  especially  as  these  two 
plays  have  a  certain  connection  with  each  other. 
I  have  been  thinking  of  presenting  all  the 
translations  spoken  of  under  the  title  of  "Half 
Hours  with  the  Leading  French  Dramatists." 
It  will  be  seen  that  my  plans  involve  no  idle 
inactivity ;  I  prefer  to  wear  out  rather  than  to 
rust  out. 

In  the  autumn  of  1903  I  issued  a  circular 
letter  to  the  surviving  students  of  the  first 
twenty  classes  of  Swarthmore  College,  asking 
them  certain  questions  as  to  their  lives  and  oc- 
cupations since  their  graduation.  At  first  this 
act  was  inspired  entirely  by  an  earnest  desire 
to  renew  my  acquaintance  with  these  young 


310  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

men  and  women  graduates,  and,  in  an  especial 
manner,  to  see  how  well  they  had  followed  my 
oft-repeated  counsel  to  decide  early  as  to  their 
occupation  in  life,  and  never  change  without 
very  good  reasons,  or  unless  compelled  by  cir- 
cumstances to  do  so.  I  found  it  very  interest- 
ing thus  to  renew  in  memory  the  early  days. 
I  had  not  proceeded  far  with  this  investiga- 
tion before  it  was  suggested  to  me,  by  one  of 
our  earlier  students,  that  I  should  collect  in  a 
volume,  to  be  distributed  among  them,  the  re- 
sults derived  from  this  investigation.  I  took 
up  the  suggestion  at  once,  as  I  considered  it 
a  good  one,  and  the  result  is  before  the  public 
in  the  form  of  the  first  issue  of  our  "  Alumni 
Historical  Catalogue."  The  correspondence 
necessary  to  do  this  work  well  occupied  me 
very  closely  for  ten  or  eleven  months,  and  the 
care  and  anxiety  of  it  brought  on  a  serious  ill- 
ness which  nearly  cost  me  my  life.  Through 
these  months  I  had  spent  from  ten  to  twelve 
hours  a  day  over  the  difficult  and  complicated 
task.  At  length  the  doctor  practically  forbade 
the  work  by  limiting  me  to  not  more  than  one 
hour  a  day  spent  in  literary  labor  of  any  kind. 
Of  course  I  obeyed,  and  passed  the  results  of 
my  work  over  to  Professors  Ferris  Wc  Price  and 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  311 

William  I.  Hull,  who  classified  and  arranged 
it  and  saw  it  through  the  press.  Through 
their  kind  aid  the  first  historical  catalogue  of 
the  Swarthmore  alumni  has  now  been  widely 
circulated,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  all.  The 
series  is  to  be  continued  hereafter  every  tenth 
year.  I  had  signed  as  president  the  diplomas 
of  eighteen  of  these  twenty  classes,  but  I  began 
with  twenty,  that  a  decimal  arrangement  might 
be  easily  followed. 

In  the  autumn  of  1904  I  received  from  my 
friend  and  former  student,  George  H.  Miflin, 
a  package  containing  what  he  called  "  Memo- 
rabilia of  the  Latin  School."  Among  the 
various  interesting  relics  within  it,  I  found 
some  exercises  of  his  in  phonography,  and 
letters  from  me  to  him  on  the  contents.  As  I 
studied  phonography  during  my  year  in  Phila- 
delphia, 184:7-4:8,  under  the  lectures  of  Oliver 
Dyer,  I  used,  of  course,  the  original  vowel 
scale  of  Isaac  Pitman.  This  has  been  variously 
changed  and  modified  by  later  students  and 
teachers  of  phonography,  and  I  soon  learned, 
with  great  pleasure,  that  there  is  a  firm  whose 
works,  from  the  beginning,  have  followed  the 
original  vowel  scale,  —  a  firm  doing  a  very 
extensive  business  in  the  publication  of  pho- 


312  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

nographic  books.  This  is  the  firm  of  Benn 
Pitman  and  Jerome  B.  Howard  of  the  Pho- 
nographic  Institute,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  For  the 
past  two  years  Mr.  Mifflin  and  myself  have 
been  exchanging  letters  and  postal  cards  in 
phonography,  using  only  the  original  vowel 
scale  as  published  by  the  Cincinnati  firm.  Of 
course,  in  this  correspondence,  Mr.  Mifflin's 
familiarity  with  the  system  is  now  much 
greater  than  my  own,  and  so  it  is  a  case  of  a 
teacher  taught,  as  in  this  progressive  age  it 
ought  to  be. 
\/  The  one  recent  step  taken  toward  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  college  to  which  so  much 
of  my  life  has  been  devoted  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  fireproof  hbrary  on  the  college 
grounds.  This  has  been  done  through  the 
liberality  of  Andrew  Carnegie,  who  offered 
$50,000  to  erect  the  building  on  condition  of 
$50,000  more  being  raised  for  its  proper  ad- 
vance and  maintenance.  This  added  $50,000 
was  promptly  secured  from  graduates  and 
other  friends  of  the  college,  and  as  this  volume 
goes  to  press  at  the  opening  of  the  new  col- 
lege year  1906-07,  the  building  is  finished, 
properly  constructed  to  permit  needed  exten- 
sion in  future  years,  and  the  volumes  so  long 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS:  1901  313 

exposed  to  the  danger  of  fire  in  their  crowded 
storage  in  Parrish  Hall  are  now  open  to  the 
use  of  students  in  its  more  convenient  and 
capacious  rooms. 

As  soon  as  restored  health  and  strength 
permitted,  I  turned  my  attention  to  this  ac- 
count of  my  sixty-five  years  as  a  teacher.  Al- 
though I  had  then  not  quite  reached  my 
eightieth  year,  it  seemed  that  with  the  proper 
care  of  my  health,  the  preparation  of  these 
memoirs  need  not  require  any  haste  on  my 
part.  I  have  kept  no  connected  diary  or  record 
of  the  events  of  my  long  life,  and  have  de- 
pended entirely  upon  memory,  with  an  occa- 
sional reference  to  a  friend  or  companion. 
Hence  this  last  work  has  advanced  but  slowly, 
often  awaiting  the  result  of  correspondence  to 
make  important  parts  clear  and  plain. 

To  the  thousands  of  students  whom  I  have 
taught  within  the  limits  of  the  past  half  cen- 
tury, I  may  be  permitted  to  repeat :  Never 
seek  a  change  of  position,  but  always  strive  to 
do  your  work  so  well  where  you  are  that 
the  new  place  will  seek  you,  instead  of  being 
sought  by  you.  Any  educator  who  desires 
to  aid  in  an  important  position  will  be  sure  to 
seek  those  already  employed,  in  preference  to 


314  LIFE  OF  A  TEACHER 

those  unoccupied  and  seeking  a  place.  This 
is  one  of  the  important  lessons  which  I  have 
learned  in  my  sixty-five  years  of  the  life  of  a 
teacher. 

Greater  evidence  of  growth  and  progress 
than  that  of  Swarthmore  College  has  rarely 
if  ever  been  seen.  Beginning  in  1869,' with 
practically  no  college,  and  a  large  preparatory 
school,  its  career  was  slow  and  painful  at  first, 
and  often  a  cause  of  deep  discouragement.  It 
has  now  eliminated  the  preparatory  school, 
which  is  carried  on  by  able  and  willing  hands 
near  by ;  the  number  of  the  college  students 
is  at  present  nearly  three  hundred ;  the  vari- 
ous departments  of  the  college  are  increased 
in  number  and  efficiency,  and  its  semi-centen- 
nial, to  be  celebrated  in  1919,  bids  fair  to  be 
one  of  great  rejoicing. 

As  this  volume  is  addressed  largely  to  those 
who  are  disposed  to  devote  themselves  to  ed- 
ucation in  the  various  grades,  from  the  common 
or  public  schools  up  to  the  high  schools,  col- 
leges, and  the  universities,  let  me  say  that  it 
should  be  the  constant  aim  of  the  teacher  and 
professor  to  make  his  or  her  own  life  all  that 
he  or  she  would  desire  to  see  imitated  in  those 
who  have  passed  under  his  or  her  instruction  ; 


PROFESSOR  EMERITUS  :  1901  315 

and  not  as  teachers  only  but  in  whatever  oc- 
cupation they  may  follow ;  and  thus  develop 
in  them  the  highest  type  of  manhood  or 
womanhood.  I  may  properly  add  that  it  is 
my  earnest  conviction  that  no  other  college 
in  this  country  has  accomplished  a  greater 
work  in  its  first  half  century,  in  the  general 
diffusion  of  education,  mental,  moral,  and 
spiritual,  given  to  both  sexes  alike  from  the 
beginning,  than  Swarthmore  College. 


INDEX 


Albert,  King  of  Saxony,  death 

of,  286. 
Ames,  James  Barr,  Boston  Latin 

School  pupil,  100. 
Andrew,  John  A.,  acquaintance 

with,  180. 
Anson  Lapham  Kepository,  142. 
Anti-slavery  leaders,  105. 
Apple,  President,  gives  address 

on  education,  228. 
Appleton,   William    Hyde,    his 

work  at  Swarthmore  College, 

167-170,  234,  263. 
Association  oiE  the  Colleges  and 

Preparatory   Schools    of    the 

Middle  States  and  Maryland, 

230-232. 
Association  of  the  Colleges  of 

Pennsylvania,  formation  and 

early  meetings  of,  227-229. 

Battin,  B.  L.,  professor  in 
Swarthmore  College,  256. 

Beans,  Sarah  Warner,  29 ;  be- 
comes Mrs.  Magill,  56,  60; 
death  of,  272. 

Beardsley,  Arthur,  his  work  at 
Swarthmore  College  and  else- 
where, 164-167. 

Berlin,  visit  to,  288. 

Bescherelle,  M.,  writes  preface 
for  Magill's  Complete  French 
Grammar,  129. 

Biddle,  Clement  M.,  195 ;  his 
work  as  a  manager  of  Swarth- 
more College,  200,  210,  267. 

Birdsall,  William  W.,  his  presi- 
dency of  Swarthmore  College, 
268. 

Bocher,  Ferdinand,  teacher   in 


Boston  Latin  School  and  Har-* 
vard  University,  101,  102. 

Boston  Latin  School,  1859-1867, 
83-108. 

Bronk,  Isabel,  teacher  of  French 
at  Swarthmore  College,  256, 
275,307. 

Brooks,  Arthur,  Boston  Latin 
School  pupil,  100. 

Brooks,  PhiUips,  87. 

Brown  University,  Dr.  Magill  a 
student  at,  40-56;  reference 
to  charter  of,  65 ;  feeling  of 
obligation  to,  80;  historical 
catsdogue  of,  207. 

Brown  University  Club  in  Phila- 
delphia, 163. 

Buckman,  Yardley  and  Edwin, 
their  boarding-school,  16-18. 

Canterbury  cathedral,  299. 

Capen,  Charles  J.,  his  work  in 
the  Boston  Latin  School,  93. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  aids  Swarth- 
more College  to  build  library, 
312. 

Chace,  Arnold  B.,  travels  with 
MagiU  family,  119,  132. 

Chace,  Prof.  George  I.,  44 ;  as 
a  teacher,  51. 

Cherry  Street  School,  Philadel- 
phia, 19-24. 

Cholera  in  Alexandria,  Va.,  27. 

Churches  of  Swarthmore,  union 
services  of,  260-263. 

"  City  of  Old  Streets,"  242. 

Civil  War,  outbreak  of,  95,  96, 
105 ;  war  spirit  aroused  in  the 
Boston  Latin  School,  106, 
107. 


318 


INDEX 


Clarke,  James  Freeman,  82, 
180, 183. 

Class  feuds  at  Swarthmore  Col- 
lege,' 193. 

Clothier,  Isaac  H.,  his  work  as 
a  manager  of  Swarthmore 
College,  199-202 ;  makes  gift 
of  forty  thousand  dollars,  219; 
a  stanch  friend,  220,  221; 
mention  of,  236;  performs 
marriage  service  for  Miss  Ma- 
gill,  258. 

Clothier,  Morris  L.,  graduate 
and  benefactor  of  Swarthmore 
College,  202  (note),  220. 

Coeducation  of  the  sexes,  lec- 
tures on,  137,  205. 

Cologne  cathedral,  296. 

Cooke,  Ann  Eliza,  travels  with 
Magill  family,  119. 

Corneille,  visit  to  home  of,  242. 

Cornell  University,  anecdote 
concerning,  143. 

Coronation  of  Edward  VII,  302. 

Corporal  punishment,  9,  10. 

Correspondence  between  foreign 
and  American  students  of 
language,  255-257. 

Cunningham,  Susan  J.,  her  work 
at  Swarthmore  College,  171- 
175. 

Dare,  Jeanne,  statue  of,  in 
Rouen,  242. 

Davis,  Master,  at  Westtown,  6. 

De  Garmo,  Charles,  his  work  as 
president  of  Swarthmore  Col- 
lege, 26.5-268 ;  appointed  pro- 
fessor at  Cornell,  268. 

Dickie,  Dr.,  in  Berlin,  289, 290. 

Discipline  in  school,  60-63,  72. 

Dolley,  Charles  E.,  professor  at 
Swarthmore  College,  159. 

Doron,  Charles  B.,  extract  from 
letter  of,  215. 

Dresden,  visit  to,  286. 

Drowning,  sensation  of,  18. 

Diirer,  Albrecht,  home  of,  283. 


Eastman,  William  H.,  prize-win- 
ner at  Yale,  34. 

Edward  VII,  coronation  of,  302. 

Eisenach,  visit  to,  292-294. 

Elective  system  in  colleges,  40, 
49.   ^ 

Elocution,  Dr.  Gardner's  success 
in  teaching.  111. 

Emlen,  James,  6. 

Emlen,  Samuel,  6. 

Europe,  visits  to,  119-136,  238- 
246,  252,  277-307. 

Everett,  William,  addresses  Bos- 
ton Latin  School,  107. 

Field,  Phebe  A.,  reminiscences  of 
life  at  Swarthmore,  178-180. 

Foreign  travel,  in  1867-68,  119- 
136;  in  1890-91,  238-246;  in 
1902,  277-307. 

Foulke,  William  Dudley,  elected 
president  of  Swarthmore  Col- 
lege, 263. 

Foulke  family,  264. 

France,  travel  and  study  in,  119- 
131,  241-246. 

Frankfort-on-the-Main,  visit  to, 
294. 

"  Free  Catholic  Church,"  246. 

French  Grammar,  Magill's  Com- 
plete, publication  of,  102-105 ; 
M.  Bescherelle  writes  preface 
for,  129. 

French  Grammar,  Magill's 
Reading,  publication  of,  249- 
253. 

French  language,  methods  of 
teaching,  249-257,  277-279. 

Friends,  Society  of,  Magill  fam- 
ily members  of,  6 ;  attitude  on 
slavery,  13;  E.  H.  Magill's 
relations  to,  13,  36,  42,  43; 
establishment  of  Swarthmore 
College,  117-153;  visit  to 
Friends'  meeting  in  London, 
305. 

Friends'  Central  School,  Phila- 
delphia, 19-24. 


INDEX 


319 


Friends*  Historical  Library, 
Swarthmore  College,  142, 
167,  241. 

Gallagher,  William,  in  Boston 
Latin  School,  98 ;  as  a  teacher, 
99. 

Gardner,  Francis,  76 ;  his  work 
in  the  Boston  Latin  School, 
84-93, 111-115 ;  death  of,  116. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  105, 
107. 

Giant's  Causeway,  288. 

Gilman,  Daniel  C.,  31,  154. 

Goethe,  at  Weimar,  291,  292; 
memorials  of  him  at  Eisenach 
and  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
294. 

Green,  Samnel  S.,  professor  at 
Brown  University  and  super- 
intendent of  schools,  44,  56, 
65. 

Gnizot,  Guillanme,  160. 

Hadley,  Prof.  James,  as  a 
teacher,  34,  37. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  258. 

Hallowell,  Benjamin,  24, 26 ;  his 
love  of  mathematics,  33 ;  rank 
as  a  teacher,  38,  44. 

Hallowell,  Henry  C,  24-26,  31. 

Hallowell  family,  several  mem- 
bers of,  teachers  in  Swarth- 
more College,  139,  175. 

Harkness,  Albert,  58. 

Haverford  College,  its  relations 
with  Swarthmore,  162-164. 

Hazing,  192. 

Hicks,  John  D.,  a  manager  of 
Swarthmore  College,  259. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  Jr., 
captain  in  the  Civil  War,  95, 
96. 

Homburg,  the  emperor's  castle 
at,  295. 

Howe,  Julia  Ward,  association 
with  the  Magill  family,  180; 
letter  from,  181 ;  her  Battle- 


Hymn,  182 ;  reference  to  her 
"Reminiscences,"  183. 

Hull,  William  I.,  assists  in  pre- 
paration of  the  "  Alumni  His- 
torical Catalogue,"  311. 

Hyacinthe,  P6re,  245. 

Italy,  travel  in,  131-135,  282. 
Ivins,   Aaron    B.,   principal    of 
Cherry  Street  School,  23. 

Jackson,  Kachel  T.,  117. 

James,  Edmund  J. ,  229. 

Jeanes,  Joseph,  aids  Swarth- 
more College,  158. 

Jenkins,  Thomas  A. ,  his  work  as 
a  teacher  of  French,  256 ;  mar- 
riage to  Miss  Marian  Magill 
and  appointment  at  Vander- 
bilt  University,  271 ;  summer 
work  at  Chicago  University 
and  appointment  at  Swarth- 
more College,  271-274;  ap- 
pointment at  Chicago  Univer- 
sity, 274. 

Johnson,  William  H.,  5. 

Kemp,  Agnes  and  Marie,  246. 
Kempel,  Frau  Dr.,  289,  290. 
Kingsbury's  Private  School  for 
Girls,  63-65. 

Laboulaye,  Edouard,  128. 
Lamb,  Eli  M.,   his  work  as  a 

manager  of  Swarthmore  Col- 
lege, 195-198,  210. 
Lawrence,  Miss  E.  A.,  courtesies 

of,  in  England,  300. 
Leidy,    Joseph,    his    work    at 

Swarthmore     College,     154- 

158. 
Levasseur,  Emile,  acquaintance 

with,  245-299. 
Lincoln,  Prof.  John  L.,  44 ;  as  a 

teacher,  52-55. 
Loch  Katrine,  239. 
London,  visit  to,  300-305. 
Longstreth,  Helen  G.,  first  dean 


320 


INDEX 


of  Swaxthmore  College,    139, 

175,  265. 
Longstreth,  M.  Fisher,  19,   21, 

195  ;  his  work  as  a  manager 

of  Swarthmore  College,  200, 

236,  237. 
Louis  Napoleon.     See  Napoleon 

III. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  quoted 

on  use  of  the  French  language, 

125  ;  mention  of,  308. 
Lucretia    Mott     fellowship    at 

Swarthmore'College,  173, 174. 
Luther,  Martin,  at  Wittenberg, 

290. 
Lyceum,  held  at  Buckingham 

Meeting,  5. 

MacVeagh,  Wayne,  31. 

Magill,  Beatrice,  daughter  of 
Edward  H.,  247;  teacher  at 
Swarthmore,  272,  276,  277. 

Magill,  Edward  H.,  birth,  1 ; 
early  training  and  education, 
2-7  ;  begins  teaching,  8-15  ; 
teaches  at  Clermont  Academy 
and  White  Hall,  16-18;  in 
Friends'  Central  School,  Phila- 
delphia, 19-24 ;  at  Alexandria, 
Va.,  24-27;  feels  need  of 
more  education,  25  -  27  ; 
studies  at  Williston  Seminary, 
29-31 ;  at  Yale  College,  31- 
41 ;  at  Brown  University,  40- 
55 ;  election  to  Phi  Beta 
Kappa,  56 ;  appointment  as 
teacher  in  Providence  High 
School,  44,  56  ;  marriage,  56, 
60 ;  life  in  Providence,  57-78 ; 
attainment  of  second  degree, 
57,  68  ;  birth  of  children,  67, 
70,  81,  91;  iUness,  70;  ap- 
pointment in  Boston  Latin 
School,  76 ;  removal  to  Ja- 
maica Plain,  81;  work  in  Latin 
School,  83-105;  study  of 
French,  79,  101 ;  publication 
of  French  grammar,  102-105 ; 


of  French  reader,  110  ;  invita- 
tion to  Swarthmore,  117  ;  re- 
signation from  Boston  Latin 
School,  118 ;  trip  to  Europe, 
119-136  ;  difficulty  in  imder- 
standing  French  in  Paris,  124  ; 
gathering  of  material  for 
"French  Prose  and  Poetry," 
118,  128;  acquaintance  with 
M.Bescherelle,  129-131 ;  trav- 
els in  southern  France  and 
Italy,  131-135;  return  to 
America,  136 ;  preparations 
for  opening  of  Swarthmore 
College,  137-142 ;  work  in 
the  College  as  professor, 
142-184;  as  president,  185- 
234 ;  appointment  as  post- 
master at  Swarthmore,  220 ; 
resignation  of  presidency  and 
appointment  as  professor  of 
French,  232-237;  a  year 
abroad,  238-248 ;  preparation 
of  "Modern  French  Series," 
243-245;  publication  of  the 
"  Reading  French  Grammar," 
249-251 ;  methods  of  teaching 
French,  250-257  ;  marriage  of 
eldest  daughter,  258;  work 
as  professor  of  French,  258, 
259,  270-273  ;  religious  work 
among  students,  and  efforts 
for  church  unity,  259-263 ; 
trip  West  in  search  of  new 
president,  265,  266;  summer 
in  Paris,  271  ;  summer  in 
Nashville,  272;  summer  in 
Chicago,  273;  resignation  of 
professorship,  with  retention 
of  lectureship,  274;  second 
marriage,  276,  277 ;  trip 
abroad,  277-307 ;  resignation 
of  lectureship,  307;  transla- 
tion of  French  plays,  308 ; 
preparation  of  "  Alumni  His- 
torical Catalogue  "  of  Swarth- 
more College,  309-311 ;  clos- 
ing words,  313-315. 


INDEX 


321 


Magill,  Eudora,  daughter  of 
Edward  H.,  238,  276. 

Magill,  Francis  Gardner,  son  of 
Edward  H.,  91. 

Magill,  Helen,  anecdote  of  her 
childhood,  74 ;  attends  Boston 
Latin  School,  90  ;  goes  abroad 
with  parents,  119,  127 ;  later 
education  and  marriage,  146, 
258 ;  visit  to,  in  Europe,  283, 
285-290. 

Magill,  Jonathan  Paxson,  father 
of  Edward  H.,  1,  4 ;  death  of, 
134. 

Magill,  Marian,  daughter  of  Ed- 
ward H.,  marriage  to  Thomas 
A.  Jenkins,  and  residence  in 
Nashville  and  elsewhere,  271- 
276. 

Magill,  Mary  Watson,  mother  of 
Edward  H.,  1-4,  13,  138. 

Managers,  Board  of,  of  Swarth- 
more  College,  brief  mention 
of  various  members,  195,  209. 

Marcel,  Claude,  his  method  of 
teaching  English,  279. 

Marchand,  Charles,  298. 

Marshall,  Samuel,  aids  inSwarth- 
more  endowment  fund,  217, 
218. 

Melanchthon,  at  Wittenberg, 
290. 

Mieille,  Prof.,  his  correspond- 
ence system  of  teaching,  255. 

Mifflin,  George  H.,  in  Boston 
Latin  School  and  later,  95,  97, 
311. 

Miller,  Elizabeth  C,  graduate 
of,  and  teacher  in,  Swarth- 
more  College,  146. 

MUler,  Francis,  25,  26,  31. 

Mitchell,  Maria,  171. 

"  Modern  French  Series,"  pre- 
paration of,  243-245,  252, 
270,271. 

Modem  Language  Association, 
a  committee  of,  established  at 
Swarthmore,  256. 


Montrachy,     "  Professor,"    his 

work  in  Boston  Latin  School, 

80, 101. 
Moore,  Esther  T.,  graduate  of, 

and  teacher  in,  Swarthmore 

College,  146. 
Mott,  Lucretia,  173,  179. 
Mouchet,  Gaston,  visit  to,  299. 


Napoleon  III,  122,  123,  128.  ^ 
"Naylor's   System  of    Singing 

Geography,"  17. 
"  New  College  System,"  40,  49, 

50,  72. 
Newport,  Jesse,  and  family,  14. 
Nuremberg,  visit  to,  283-285. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  extract 
from  letter  of,  96. 

Paine,  Sumner,  in  Boston  Latin 
School  and  the  Civil  War,  95- 
97. 

Paris,  visits  to,  122-131,  243- 
246,  252,  297-299. 

Paris  Exposition  of  1867, 122, 124. 

Parrish,  Edward,  first  president 
of  Swarthmore  College,  117, 
137,  139,  151. 

Pedagogics,  first  introduced  as 
a  study  in  college,  44. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  105,  107. 

Phonography,  teaching  of,  and 
later  renewal  of  practice,  97, 
311. 

Pierce,  Maria  C,  valedictorian 
of  first  class  graduated  at 
Swarthmore  College,  146. 

President's  Prize  for  Public 
Speaking,  at  Swarthmore,  194. 

Price,  Ferris  W.,  assists  in  pre- 
paration of  the  "  Alumni  His- 
torical Catalogue,"  310. 

Providence  High  School,  57-63. 

Race  Street  School,  Philadel- 
phia, 19. 

Rhine,  the,  compared  with  the 
Hudson,  296. 


322 


INDEX 


Rouen,  visit  to,  241-243. 

Rubens's  paintings,  297. 

* 

Sabine  farm,  Horace's,  a  visit 
to,  133. 

Sachs,  Hans,  at  Nuremberg, 
285. 

Sainte-Beuve,  quoted,  10. 

Sanford,  Maria  L.,  her  work  at 
Swarthmore  College  and  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  Vlo- 
178. 

Sarcey,Francisque,  acquaintance 
with,  244,  245. 

Schiller,  at  Weimar,  291,  292. 

Scotland,  travels  in,  239. 

Sears,  Bamas,  president  of 
Brown  University,  50. 

Sepoy  Rebellion,  Dr.  Joseph 
Thomas's  experience  in,  161, 
162. 

Smith,  Clement  L.,  secretary  of 
Swarthmore  College,  139,  140. 

Smoking,  32 ;  forbidden  in 
Swarflmiore  College,  139, 192, 
225. 

Society  of  Friends.  5ec  Friends, 
Society  of. 

Somerville  Literary  Society, 
172-174. 

Sprague,  Homer  B.,  31. 

Stead,  WiUiam  T.,  visit  to  the 
home  of,  303. 

Stedman,  Edmund  C,  31. 

Sumner,  George,  quoted,  92. 

Sun-dial,  homemade,  11. 

Swain,  Joseph,  president  of 
Swarthmore  College,  280, 281. 

Swarthmore  College,  establish- 
ment of,  117,  137-145 ;  aims 
of,  147-149 ;  difBculties  of  the 
early  years,  149-151 ;  Presi- 
dent Parrish,  151-153;  some 
early  professors,  154-184 ; 
Prof.  Magill  made  president, 
185 ;  grading  of  classes,  186  ; 
the  experiment  of  * '  normal- 
izing "  Swarthmore,  187-190 ; 


management  and  organization, 
191-211 ;  composition  of  the 
faculty,  202 ;  of  the  board  of 
managers,  203  ;  degrees,  203 ; 
coeducation,  205 ;  plan  of  the 
Historical  Catalogue,  207 ; 
building  destroyed  by  fire, 
211-216  ;  new  building,  217  ; 
endowment,  217-220 ;  college 
papers,  "  The  Phoenix,"  "  The 
Swarthmorean,"  223,  224 ; 
athletics,  224 ;  the  college  en- 
tertains "  The  Association  of 
the  Colleges  and  Preparatory 
Schools  of  the  Middle  States 
and  Maryland,"  231 ;  resolu- 
tions passed  on  resignation  of 
Pres.  Magill,  235 ;  work  of 
French  department,  249-257  ; 
presidency  of  William  Hyde 
Appleton,  263 ;  of  Charles  De 
Garmo,  265-268;  of  William 
W.  Birdsall,  268;  of  Joseph 
Swain,  280;  additional  en- 
dowment, 280,  281 ;  publica- 
tion of  the  "Alumni  Historical 
Catalogue,"  310 ;  building  of 
fireproof  library,  312 ;  sum- 
mary of  progress,  314. 

Taxation  of   college    property, 

225,  227. 
Thomas,  Dr.  Joseph,  professor 

at  Swarthmore  College,  159- 

162. 
Thompson,  Charles,  visit  to,  240. 
Tobacco,  use   of,  forbidden  in 

Swarthmore  CoUege,  139, 192, 

225. 
Travel  abroad,  in  1867-68, 119- 

136 ;  in  1890-91,  238-246 ;  in 

1902,  277-307. 
Trotter,    Spencer,  professor  at 

Swarthmore  College,  159. 

Underbill,  Daniel,  Sr.,  aids  in 
Swarthmore  endowment  fund, 
218. 


INDEX 


323 


Union  services  in  Swarthmore 
churches,  260-263. 

Vail,  Hugh  D.,  teacher  at  West- 
town,  6. 
Virgpin,  Samuel  H.,  106. 

War  of  the  Rebellion.  See  Civil 
War. 

Warriner,  Henry,  teacher  of 
geography,  17. 

Wayland,  Francis,  36 ;  his  ad- 
vocacy of  the  elective  system, 
40,  41 ;  as  president  of  Brown 
University,  40-51,  72. 

Weimar,  visit  to,  291. 

Westtown  school,  6,  7. 

Wharton,  Joseph,  aids  Swarth- 
more College,  165,  219. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  31 ;  marries 
Miss  Magill,  147,  258;  visit 
to,  in  Europe,  283,  285-290. 


Whitely's  department  store  in 
London,  301. 

Willets,  Samuel,  president  of 
board  of  managers  of  Swarth- 
more College,  145,  165,  210, 
211,  217. 

Williams,  Talcott,  quoted,  270. 

Williamson,  Isaiah  V.,  aids 
Swarthmore  College,  219. 

Williston  Seminary,  29-31. 

Wittenberg,  visit  to,  290. 

Women,  education  of,  in  Brown 
University,  41 ;  in  Providence 
High  School,  58;  in  Boston, 
59 ;  in  Swarthmore  College, 
202,206;  in  Yale,  206. 

Woolsey,  Pres.  Theodore,  34- 
37. 

Yale  College,  31-41. 
Yamall,    Howard,    teacher    at 
Westtown,  6. 


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